Final Fantasy IV: Refugees
by Ivy Lee
Summary: Magic is like energy: It is not created nor destroyed. What happens when a whole world full of magic looses it all at once? Most magic dissipates into the void. Stronger beings find somewhere else to be. Terra x Rydia Shoujo Ai.
1. Prologue

There was a holocaust on my world. A man of terrible evil hunted down anything containing magical power, in order to use it himself. I was among a small group that stood against him, but in the end I was forced to leave not only my world, but a part of myself as well.

I looked back at my world, a place that used to be full of the light of Magic. Now it was nothing more than a sphere of dead blackness. When I reached out to touch it, longing to rejoin the other part of me, it felt terribly cold and solid. There was no way back. Even through this barrier, though, I could feel the other part of myself, and ached with the desire to unite with her again.

Magic is never created, nor is it ever destroyed. That is how I survived. When beings of magic die, they dissipate, though their energy is not lost. I, however, did not die. I moved. Perhaps I was able to do this because of my time as part human. I don't know. Our connection was and is mysterious, even to me.

The magical void out here pulls at me from all directions. I must find shelter. I must hang on to what defines me. So I can come back for her. I will return for her.

I can see dim pinpricks of light in the magical landscape of the universe. They are not simply far away, but weak. What I need is a magical hub. There is something just on the edge of my hearing. It's a voice. It's not calling me, but calling for help. Very distant, but very strong. Perhaps she will have the strength I need.


	2. Chapter 1

Running down the hall leading to the Throne Room, Rydia stopped just short of the doorway. She paused, and put her hand on her chest to still her breathing. She schooled her face into a less anxious expression, not wanting the King to know how worked up she was. After a few moments, she knocked softly on the heavy wooden door before her. "You may enter," came the imperious reply.

Walking up towards the throne, Rydia kept her pace steady and unconcerned. She wanted him to believe she was stronger than she felt right now. "You summoned me, your majesty?" the Caller asked, bowing. She felt apprehensive of this meeting, because the King didn't often call for her company. She also had a pretty good idea why he had asked for her.

"Yes," King Leviathan replied, his forked tongue causing him to hiss slightly behind his teeth. "Please, be at ease. I have requested you here informally. Tell me, young one, did you feel it as I felt it?"

Rydia's heart sank. She knew exactly what he was asking about. "You mean this feeling that something terrible is about to happen." She replied flatly. "Early this morning, I heard a fire burning, then an explosion, and then silence, but it was all in my head. At the same time, I felt a little of it, like a tingling all over my body. I thought I was dreaming." The words all tumbled out on top of one another, despite Rydia's best efforts to control them. She inwardly cursed her own childish way of speaking and ended up looking down at her hands.

"Ahh, I see," Leviathan replied, and smiled in his reptilian way. "You were not dreaming. I had much the same sensation. As a powerful magical being, you and I are able, to a limited extent, to 'feel' when something happens, magically speaking. Asura felt it as well. We all felt what can only be described as a magical explosion. A great deal of power has been released all at once. While its origin is very far away, undoubtedly some of it will come here."

"Very far away?'" Rydia asked. "Like the second moon? It left here almost two years ago, and I thought it was leaving for good." Leviathan shook his head. "Well, if it's not the moon, why would whatever it is come here?"

"Because this world is a hub of magical activity. It's a beacon of light in the vast emptiness of the magical universe. You must understand that ours is not the only world. There are innumerable other worlds out in the universe, and I do not mean physically. It is only through the corridors of magic that these other worlds can be reached. Although, as a Summoner, you can feel a little of what happens beyond the magical veil of our world, you cannot move past it yourself. Nor can any human. Only beings of pure magic can move between worlds."

Realizing that her mouth had started to hang open a bit, Rydia struggled to regain her composure. "Okay," she began, shaking her head slowly, as if trying to jostle the new bits of information into place, "in that case, couldn't you leave any time you wanted?"

Leviathan gave a hissing laugh. "Perhaps, but then again maybe not. I have been comfortable here, and never thought to leave. Though if I were to try to leave, it is possible that I would not survive the journey."

"Why not?" Rydia asked immediately.

"Strong though I may be," Leviathan replied, "There is nothing like the absence of everything to take away what you are. I might find another world with enough magic for me to exist as I do here, but it would not be long in the searching before I would loose myself in the vastness of the void."

"Then how will whatever it is that's coming make it here? They'll probably die in the void, too, right?"

"Oh, it will come in the usual way. Terribly strong in the world it came from, it will be able to survive and reach here. It will probably be weak upon arrival. Unfortunately, that will make it difficult to know where and when it will come. And I am sure that it will regain power rapidly."

Rydia began to feel worried and more than a little confused. "Does this mean that evil is coming? Why? What should I do?"

"Let me put it this way. Powerful beings only get that way because they have something to live for. Hatred is a powerful motivation, even if that motivation does not seem strong to us. I think it is more likely that evil will be strong enough to make it here than others. That is not to say that there may not be other magical 'refugeees,' if you will, neutral or otherwise who may also make it here. As for what to do about it..." The king trailed off in mid-sentence. He looked up and off into the distance, eyes unfocused. Rydia imagined that she could just about see the cogs turning in his head. After a while, he looked down, directly into Rydia's eyes, and slowly asked, "Are you willing to take a gamble?"

* * *

Eyes closed, Rydia called out with her mind, searching beyond even the bounds of the planet. Her mind searched for that familiar feeling of connection to something with magical power, something or someone who could hear and answer her Call. Ignoring the voices nearest to her, she attempted to send her mind farther and farther beyond them. She somehow came to a place of complete silence. She felt cold and darkness closing around her mind and senses. She called into the darkness, strangly feeling as if her voice echoed, but somehow also fell imediately flat.

"_Can you help me?" _The voice spoke into her mind. It was a decidedly feminine voice, though magic always made voices sound as though there was the potential for the voice to sound however it wanted to, male or female.

"_I need your help as much as you need mine, but I will try." _Rydia thought back.

"_I am fading,"_ the voice responded. "_I need Magic."_

"_Then you won't be disappointed in coming here," _Rydia replied. "_Please, follow the sound of my voice and the feel of my Magic."_ Rydia could feel the raw power of whoever was out there. She felt as the energy came closer and closer, and lost her vision momentarily as her ears filled with a rushing noise. As she had done countless times before, she took the energy into herself, and channeled it outward again, to where it needed to be.

This time, though, the energy was stronger. There was more of it, coming faster. And unlike before, she didn't hold any of the energy in herself, to send it back where it came. She had to send all of the energy outward to allow the summons to stay in this world. The energy burned like fire through her mind and body.

She held her hands out in front of her as a green, ethereal fire erupted from her fingertips. It flowed outward, to the center of the cavern where it flickered and danced. The fire continued up Rydia's arms as it became brighter and stronger. She began to moan as the fire reddened her skin with sunburn. A ball of light took shape and firmed in the center of the room as fire began to engulf the summoner's whole body. The fire burned inside and out, and Rydia could not help but scream. She barely maintained consciousness while burning light and energy consumed all of her senses. Even over the sound of her own screaming, though, she thought she heard someone else screaming, whose voice was full of magic.

Finally, all at once, everything stopped. The energy left Rydia's body, the burning stopped, and she surrendered gratefully to unconsciousness.

* * *

Edge watched with growing concern and horror as Rydia's body erupted into flames. When she began to moan, and then to scream, he started forward to help her. Two sets of hand held him back.

"Stop! Don't interrupt her now!" Palom yelled at Edge.

"You'll do her more harm than good!" Porom continued.

"But I can't just leave her alone!" Edge snarled back. "She's burning! What if she's dying?"

"Just be ready if to protect her from what's coming, and to catch her when she falls." Porom replied calmly. Edge almost wanted to hit her. He found it infuriating that she was so calm at a time like this. But the twins held him tight. A part of him knew they were right, knew that distracting any magic user at a critical moment could do irreparable harm.

The three of them watched as the energy transformed from a ball of light, firming and taking shape. The light became tinged with pink, and started to form a shape that was, of all things, mostly human in nature. Before long, limbs formed, then hands and feet. The creature's torso fleshed out into something even more human that it first seemed to be; a naked woman's body. A face took shape, pinched with pain. A wild shock of long, wavy hair tumbled down to her thighs. As she became less ethereal and more stable, her voice could be heard screaming along with Rydia's.

Then, suddenly, it was over. The last of the energy flowed from Rydia's fingertips, the fire leaving her body. As one, both women fell over sideways with a thud. Edge ran over to Rydia, whose skin was bright red with sunburn. Gently, he picked up the unconscious summoner and took her to the room Asura had prepared for her. Palom and Porom were carrying the unconscious form of the pink woman just behind.

"Lay them both down gently," Asura instructed. "I will do what I can to Heal them, but this is a magical burn-out. All that will really heal the damage is time." Passing her many arms over Rydia's body, she smiled with relief. Gradually, Rydia's burned skin lightened in color, until she was only slightly more pink than her usual color. "Do not worry. Rydia will be fine. I don't want to help the other until we found out more, though. Please stay with Rydia while she recovers."

"Do you really think this was a good idea?" Edge kept one eyebrow raised at Asura while looking sidelong at the pink woman on the other bed. "What IS it?" He gritted his teeth and practically snarled, "It almost killed her, you know."

"I know," Asura replied. "I do not know what she is. Just keep a close eye on her for now. It is hard to know if we have a refugee or an invader on our hands."

Palom and Porom exchanged looks and said together, "We can handle it!" The twins continued on, one of top of the other, "If she's an enemy, we can take her while she's weak," said Palom, while Porom said at the same time, "If she is an ally, I'm glad we found her first." They glared at each other.

Asura and Edge sighed shook their heads at the twins.

* * *

"You haven't been yourself since you got back," Katarin said suddenly. Terra had been helping her with dinner, but now she was absentmindedly stirring the stew, just staring off into space. "Did you hear me?"

Startled, Terra jumped and looked over at Katarin. "What? Sorry, my mind was somewhere else..." She trailed off, brushing her green hair away from her face and over her shoulder, looking at Katarin without focusing on her.

"That's what I mean," Katarin replied. "You're always somewhere else anymore. Before you left, we all could tell that we were all you had. Sometimes you would look like something was bothering you, I could tell. But even then, you were still all here, only wanting to be with us. Now... You're looking off somewhere else more often than you're here." She paused, catching Terra's gaze. "Do you... miss your friends? Or, is it... The fighting?"

Terra looked away, seeming to honestly think the question over. Eventually, she lifted her head again gazed into Katarin eyes as she spoke. "I'm sorry I haven't been myself lately. I didn't really tell you what happened, and that wasn't fair to you. It's my magic. All magic is gone. MY magic is gone. It frightened me before, but... Now that it's gone, I feel half-empty. I feel vaguely like I'm disconnected from the world, or myself, or both."

Katarin got up and tottered over towards Terra to give her a hug. "Will you be alright?" she asked, as she hugged Terra tightly.

"I don't know, but I will try to bring myself together. Don't worry about me; you have enough to worry about! Any day now, right?" Terra smiled and put her hands to Katarin's swollen belly. She felt the baby give a small kick within. "Take care of the baby. Duane and I will take care of you, and I can take care of myself."

Katarin fervently hoped that she could.


	3. Chapter 2

_**Author's note: I had originally planned to make this chapter go a bit farther into the plot, but then I realized that the chapter would be about twice as long as Chapter 1 and about 4 times as long as the intro. At any rate... what do you guys think of the chapter lengths? Longer? Shorter? Should I go back and do some editing and consolidation?**_

_**Anyway, enjoy it!**_

* * *

Rydia found herself in a twilight world of shadows and mist. There were no features to the landscape around her, just a vast openness, and the mist that seemed to envelope everything. Some distance away, Rydia heard someone crying. Her voice was full of loss and mourning, an unspeakable loneliness that went even beyond what Rydia had felt when she lost her mother. She followed the sound of it, her heart aching in empathy, wanting to help. Somehow, she knew at once that it was what she had Called from the other world. She finally came within sight of the being; female in shape, she was bright pink, with a shock of very thick hair that tumbled down to her thighs. The same pink color of her body, her hair was more like the mane of an animal than it was like human hair, wild and thick as it was. She was sitting down with her knees pulled to her chest, curled up and crying. Rydia approached slowly from ahead of the figure. Quietly she asked, "What's wrong?"

The woman lifted her head to look at Rydia with fear and pain in her glowing eyes. _I miss her. _She spoke directly into Rydia's mind. _I cannot live without her._

Rydia was astonished to see such plainly human emotion in a magical being. Except for the oldest and most powerful among them, creatures of magic usually did not share or even understand emotions in the same way people did. But this creature's pain was so obvious, Rydia's heart broke just to look at her. "Who?" she asked gently.

_My other half. Part of me is missing. I need her._ Once again, she spoke directly into Rydia's mind. The Caller got an image in her mind's eye of a woman who was not unlike this magical being in shape, but definitely human. Young and pretty but with a serious expression, she was pale and had green hair only a few shades off from Rydia's, with aquamarine eyes to match.

Rydia stepped forward to offer the pink woman her hand. "If there's a way, I will help you," she said impulsively, unable to deny anyone in so much pain. As she reached for the other woman's hand, she suddenly woke up, jerking into consciousness. Her hand was stretched to take the woman's hand as in the dream, but in reality it was in Edge's hand, who was sitting next to her. Momentarily confused, Rydia tried to sit up straight, and realized immediately that it was a huge mistake. The room spun around her, and she suddenly felt on the verge of vomiting. Edge stood up and caught her head and shoulders, laying her gently back down onto the bed. She could feel the fabric of his hand wraps through her clothes and hair.

"Careful," he warned, his voice unusually kind. "You overdid yourself. Typical. Here, I have a Potion for you. Try to drink it." He gently lifted her head just high enough so that she could swallow. The potion burned slightly going down her throat, but the burning turned into a rejuvenating warmth that radiated from her throat and stomach through her whole body. The familiarity of it was comforting, having used it hundreds of times before. After a few gulps, she nodded, and Edge lowered her head back to the pillow. For a few minutes, the two of them were silent. Eventually, Rydia tried opening her eyes again. She was back in her home in the Land of the Summoned Monsters. Edge sat next to her with a chair borrowed from another room. Rarely if ever did he have his mask off, but he did then, exposing very handsome features set in an angular face. Rydia thought that it was a shame how his face was so often covered, handsom as it was. Then again, he really didn't need any encouragement in his narcissism, either.

The Potion seemed to have helped Rydia's nausia, but she didn't try sitting up again just yet. "Glad you're awake now," Edge said after a while. "What were you dreaming about, anyway? You looked upset."

At first, when Rydia tried to speak, her throat was so dry that only croaking came out. Edge gave her more Potion to drink, and she tried again. "It was her," she finally managed. "I think. The woman I Summoned. She's... in terrible pain. I think that it has something to do with where she came from. It's hard to explain."

Edge gave the floor a sour look. "Well, it makes sense that you would dream about it, I guess. But it's just a dream. None of us really know anything about her yet." He gritted his teeth. "Why take such a risk on something like that? You almost didn't survive it."

Rydia sighed. "Think about it. I told you what Leviathan said. If she's good, then it's a good thing that I got her here and in good care. If she's evil, then at least we know where she is and can deal with her while she's still weak. Besides, I DID survive it, so what's your problem?"

Edge gave an exasperated grumble, but didn't actually reply. After finishing her Potion, Rydia tried sitting up. The Potion had definitely helped to alleviate her dizziness and nausea. She saw an Ether also nearby, noting that she had no magical reserves left. Seeing her look toward it, Edge said, "Asura says you're burned out. She said not to take it until you've been awake for a while."

Rydia shrugged. "Fine then," she replied. Moving right along, she added, "I want to see our guest." Edge opened his mouth to argue, but Rydia held up her hand to stop him. "I know she's not awake yet, and I know you're angry. It won't do any good to tell me. Just take me to her, okay? Please?"

Edge harrumphed but led Rydia to Asura's quarters all the same. The pink woman was laid out to rest in Asura's bed, laying perfectly still. She almost seemed to glow a bit, as light as her coloring was. Palom and Porom were standing guard; they were each sitting nearby in chairs. Porom seemed to be the only one doing any guarding, though, as Palom was fast asleep. When she saw Rydia and Edge walk in, she jabbed Palom hard in the ribs and hissed, "Rydia's here! Wake up, you ninny! You were supposed to be on guard with me!"

Palom jumped up out of the chair and cried, "I was too guarding!" He gave his sister a glare. "You don't hafta hit me all the time, Porom!" He turned back to Rydia, and both twins said in perfect unison, "Glad you're okay and awake now, Rydia. I was worried." They glared at each other again.

Rydia couldn't help but laugh. "Thank you," she replied. "I feel better already." She smiled and the twins tried to glare at first, but found the Caller's smile to be infectious. They smiled back before long. "I would like to speak with our guest."

"Well, she's not awake yet," Porom replied. "She hasn't even twitched since we brought her in."

"She's awake now," Rydia said, thumbing over her shoulder at the figure on the bed. Her glowing eyes were open, though she still didn't move. "Let me talk to her. If you wouldn't mind, please-"

The twins and Edge all three practically yelled, "We're not waiting outside!"

Rydia held up her hands in defeat. "Alright already. Just don't crowd around her, okay? Stand back." Grumbling, the three of them moved to the other side of the room, Edge leaning moodily against the wall, Palom sitting down cross-legged in a huff on the floor, and Porom hovering anxiously to one side. Rydia grabbed a chair and pulled it close to the bed. She leaned in and said, "You never were asleep, were you?"

"No," the other replied, her voice with that strange magical quality.

"That was really you in my dream, wasn't it? It wasn't just a dream. You were trying to talk to me, weren't you?" Rydia asked, whispering urgently. The woman simply nodded, showing none of the emotion that had been present before. "I told you that I wanted to help, and I still do, but I can't do that unless you tell me more about yourself and about what happened. I'm Rydia. What's your name?"

She gazed at Rydia and the Caller felt as if the other was looking right through her. "Well, my other half used to call herself Terra," she replied.

"What do you mean? Why don't you start from the beginning?"

"Well... we used to be half human, half Esper. Our parents... Our father was an Esper, our mother a human woman. We were always one person, but still separate. Terra did not know about me or her Esper heritage until later in her life, but after she found out, I was available to her when she needed me." She paused. "I don't know how to explain it better than that. At any rate, we had to fight a terrible evil on our world. A greedy and destructive man who ruined the precious balance of magic. The damage was... unimaginable. And irreparable. In the end, it wasn't just Terra who stood against him. Many of us banded together to defeat him. But, we had to confront not only him, but all of the magic in the world that had been corrupted, including the source itself. When we defeated him, we also killed off the source of all magic on our world. I was separated from Terra, thrown out of the world with the rest of the magic. I know we both somehow survived this separation, but... I'm not whole by myself. I was her Esper half, and now that we are separate, I am not a whole Esper, I am still just a half. I tried to go back to my world, but there is some sort of barrier there now. No magic can enter anymore."

Rydia could feel the eyes of the other three boring into her back. She could tell they were listening in, but trying not to disturb the conversation. Rydia could hear Edge's intake of breath, as if he wanted to say something, but was holding it back out of respect for her. Rydia said, "If I hadn't felt it myself when I brought you here, I would call you a liar. Your story seems impossible. Then again, I guess we've seen crazy things in this world, too. But I still don't quite get all of it. I have loads of questions." The woman, who Rydia decided to go ahead and call Terra, at least in her own head, nodded for her to go on. "First of all; what are Espers?"

Terra raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Beings of magic. We had power the humans did not, except through theft. A group of humans, including Kefka, the evil man I spoke of, experimented on us to see if they could use our power for themselves." She paused. "Terra and I were special, though. We had magic innately, when no other human did. But now... No Espers were left truly alive by the time we had our final battle. And with magic now gone... I am the last of the Espers, so far as I know."

Rydia's eyes widened. _Through theft? _she thought. "So you're telling me that humans in your world couldn't use magic, even before it was lost?"

"Not without the use of Magicite. Magicite is the only real way of using an Esper's power. In essence, it is an Esper's body. It is what is left when we die. Or... They also drained magic from us in another way, but it was not nearly as effective as Magicite, so when they found out that killing Espers was the best way of gaining their powers... Our days were numbered. That is why I believe they were all killed even before the last battle." She looked wearily at Rydia. "Is it different here? Are there many others like you?"

"Um, yes and no. There are many magic users in our world, but I am different from them. We have something in common there. I'm the only Caller left. All the others were killed..." Rydia voice broke. It still hurt to think about her mother. She had long ago forgiven Cecil and Kain, but she still missed her mother terribly. To cover it, she pointed her thumb over her shoulder. "But people who can use some kind of magic are pretty common. These guys behind me can use different kinds of magic."

Edge gave an annoyed grunt of ascent and added, "Yeah, so you better not try anything funny."

Terra shook her head sadly. "No, I have no desire to hurt anyone. All I want is Terra back." Edge had a look on his face the plainly said, _Yeah, sure, I'll trust ya as far as I can throw ya._

Unable to see Edge's face, Rydia ignored this and continued. "Any idea how we might do that?" she asked.

Some of the pain from Rydia's dream resurfaced in Terra's eyes. "I don't know. No magic is allowed in..."

"Don't give up hope yet. I said I'd help you if I could, so I'm gonna try. Let me talk to someone who might know more about this stuff than we do, okay?" Rydia waited for Terra to nod, then looked over at Edge and the twins. "I'm going to see the King. I will be back later." The other three nodded and let her go.

* * *

Rydia finished her explanation to King Leviathan. "What do you think? Why wouldn't she be able to go back? I mean, can a world even exist without magic?"

The king had an expression of genuine scholarly interest. "My guess is that their 'source' of magic was a conduit through which magic could enter into their world. Like our world is a hub, I would guess that their world also attracted any magic nearby. Now, without the conduit, no new magic has a way of entering." He looked up and off into the distance, unfocused. "But..." Leviathan shook his head slowly. "It is not possible for a world to exist without any Magic," he said after a while. "Without it, the world would stop working. Humans would lose their imaginations. Especially the ability to dream. Without dreams, humans would surely be lost."

"Dreams? Dreams are caused by magic? Why are they so important?" These were the questions that suddenly sprang to the top of a very long list in the Caller's brain.

Levithan said simply, "Without dreams, humans have no hopes and no futures."

_Well that explains a whole lotta nothin'! _Rydia thought to herself. Then, she had an idea. Levithan could practically see the light bulb flash over the girl's head. "Then... could this Terra be reached through her dreams? Even through the barrier?"

"Normally, I would say absolutely not. But it seems that this Esper, as you called her, has a special connection to her human counterpart. Things that were of one cloth, once separated, always call back to each other. Perhaps this would give you the link you need." Rydia, obviously excited by this, gasped and opened her mouth to say something, but Leviathan cut her off. "Wait. Are you sure you want to try this? Without your help it will fail. But if you help, you may not survive it. Knowing the danger that I put you in when I suggested just bringing someone born of magic into the world originally... I now feel that request was foolhardy. But this will be much more difficult. To bring something physical here... And I am still not even sure that it is possible."

Rydia nodded emphatically. "Your Majesty, with all due respect, you didn't see how upset she is, or felt what she feels. It's maddening to her. She can't think of anything else but her other half." Her cheeks flushed as she go worked up with emotion. "It breaks my heart. I HAVE to help! I can't just sit by and do nothing for someone when I could help. I couldn't forgive myself!"

The Caller had such a look of determination on her face, and watching her worked up and huffing with such emotion, Leviathan almost laughed. Instead, he sighed. "I thought you would say as much. I would suggest two things, though. First, that you ask the twins for help again, but in a different way this time. They are used to synchronizing with each other. Perhaps they could lend you their magic and enable the four or you to sync together. It may be the difference between success and failure."

Rydia nodded. "Good idea. I'll do that." She turned to leave. Then she stopped and looked back. "Wait, you had a second suggestion?"

"Yes," Leviathan replied, showing a fanged smile. "Get some sleep. Make sure you are fully rested for this. I would hate to lose you." Rydia sighed, smiled, nodded, bade the King goodnight, and left.

* * *

Rydia decided to take Leviathan's advice and sleep again before making her pitch to everyone else involved in this. She needed to replenish her own magic stores completely before making such a risky attempt. And, if she was honest with herself, she was too tired to deal with Edge's reaction to her plan, in particular. She was vaguely aware of the ninja's presence in her home, continuing to watch over her though she felt it to be totally unnecessary. At least he hadn't tried to sleep in the chair in her room again. Although she appreciated it the first time around, she didn't necessarily want him watching her sleep.

She laid down atop her covers, clothes still on, and dropped right off to sleep.

Rydia was in twilight once again. This time, the Caller was surprised to see the Esper Terra standing next to her. She was not crying, but looking sadly into the distance. _It's easier to talk here, _the Esper spoke into Rydia's mind. _I think we understand each other better here. _

She wanted to respond in kind, speaking to Terra's mind, but somehow couldn't quite manage it. Nevertheless, she said, "Yes, I think I can see what you mean. Somehow, I can feel what you feel when you talk to me now. But where are we?"

_Somewhere between dreaming and sleep. _She paused. _It's hard to explain. _

"That's okay," Rydia replied. "You don't have to." Rydia looked more closely into the Esper's glowing eyes, fascinated by her foreign appearance, so hauntingly and tragically beautiful. "I get the feeling you know what I'm about to tell you."

_Yes. I know you will try to help me, at great risk to yourself. Ever since you Called to me, I've been able to know what you know._ The Esper gazed back quizzically into Rydia's emerald eyes.

"Yeah. I feel like maybe we got mixed together somehow. I've never pulled anyone through like that before. It's a lot like how I feel about my other companions that I can Summon, but... stronger, a little different. I guess that's why... I know how much you hurt. And I can't stand it." She wanted to reach out to put her hand on Terra's shoulder, reassure her, but was afraid of waking up. "I want to help. But I also need your help, and it will be risky for you, too."

_Risk of myself is not a factor. You know that I am only half alive as I am now. I will take whatever risk is necessary._

"Alright," Rydia replied. "Please be ready tomorrow." Terra nodded in reply. Then, without even trying, the mist and Esper faded away, and the Caller drifted into a recuperative sleep.

* * *

A VampLady deep within the Sealed Cave suddenly lost contact with one of her WereBats. She wanted to know what had happened to it, in case something had eaten it that she could prey upon herself. Nearing the vincinity of the old Dark Crystal Room, she found the door to be wide open. It had not been open since humans last entered the cave two years ago. Just outside the doorway, she saw her bat. It was being eaten very messily by a crumpled-looking ball of shadows. She watched this new being with curiosity; it looked deformed and ungainly, hunched over and feeding noisily upon its prey.

It was definitely nothing that had ever been in the cave before.

She thought it a wonder that this thing could have even caught her bat. It looked broken, barely alive. She drew closer, overcome with curiosity over this thing, convinced she could handle it should the creature notice her and attack. As she watched it eating, it started slowing down its gobbling and actually seemed to grow in size and become less shadowy.

She had a foreboding of danger just a moment too late before the thing turned and launched at her, surprisingly strong despite its shape and size. Black, dripping claws tore into her torso while the thing's fangs went for her neck. She was so taken by surprise, she tried too late to fight back. A maniacle, whooping laughter filled her ears just as she lost consciousness for good.


	4. Chapter 3

_Author's Note: Thanks to all of you who have left me reviews and/or marked me or this story for alert or as a favorite. I really appreciate your support! I might continue writing it if no one wanted to read it but me, but I wouldn't be very motivated about it. So thanks for the motivation! I'll keep writing as much as I can! _

"You want to do WHAT?" Edge practically shouted.

Rydia sighed. She knew this was coming. She glanced back into the other room where the Esper and the twins were waiting. "We are going to attempt to bring Terra's human form into our world."

Edge continued in hushed but vehement tones, "And why, exactly, would you want to put yourself and the rest of us at risk to do that? We hardly even know this Esper-thing! What if she's deceiving you to put us all in danger? What if this doesn't work, and you get hurt, or worse?"

Rydia sighed again. "Edge. Please, put your suspicion aside and take a good look at her. She's obviously in distress. Don't you think that if she were evil, we would have seen some sign of it by now? Besides... I just know, okay? I know she's good. I have to help her." Edge gave her a slightly shocked look at this declaration. Rydia didn't feel like explaining her connection with the Esper, so she tried a new tactic. "Besides, it's not like you to back down to a challenge," she said, giving him a sly grin.

Now it was Edge's turn to heave an exasperated sigh. "That has nothing to do with this! This isn't a challenge to me; it's a challenge to you; you're the one in danger. Of course I'm going to be like this. I..." Edge blushed. "I mean, well, if it WAS something I could help with, then that would be one thing, but it's not! I don't want you to get hurt over something we're not sure of!" Edge was still blushing, but he threw an intense glare at Rydia.

Rydia inwardly smiled. She knew that the reason Edge acted like this was because he cared about her. And although Edge made it pretty obvious he was after Rydia, for some reason he had never been able to just say the words, "I love you," or "I really care about you." Somehow, Rydia wasn't upset by this, it was just something she noticed. Outwardly, she made sure her expression showed none of her sardonic amusement. "Edge, I think you're the only one who 'isn't sure' about it. The twins are ready to try it, Asura said that she would stand by to help us, and I even have King Leviathan's permission in this. I just thought that you would feel better about it if you were with us, to know what happens, rather than waiting to hear news of it. But if you can't take it and don't want to help..." She made as if to turn away to leave.

Edge grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "You KNOW that's not how I feel," he growled. Rydia could feel his breath on her shoulder as he lowered his head in defeat. "Fine. If all of you are crazy enough to try this thing, then I can't stop you. I don't know what I can do, but I'll be here to help."

Rydia sighed with relief. "Thank you," she said softly. Wanting to show her appreciation, she embraced the ninja tightly. He gasped a little in surprise and tensed up. The Caller let go quickly, not wanting to give the wrong impression about how she felt about him, and beckoned the Edge to follow her to where the twins and Terra were waiting. She gathered the other three, and the group of five moved to the cavern where Rydia had Called Esper-Terra into this world. "Okay," Rydia began, turning to the twins. "So, how do you two do what you do, anyway?"

Palom and Porom looked at each other, thinking of how to explain. Eventually they nodded at each other and turned back to Rydia and Terra. Palom began the explanation. "Well, it's that I have to do exactly what Porom does, and visa versa, right? Well, we both have to find each other's thoughts, and then..."

"We can know what the other is thinking, and act accordingly," Porom finished. "If I had to guess, I would say it's a lot like how you find your Summons when you Call." She cocked her head to one side, putting her finger to her cheek, and thought for a moment. She nodded to herself. "Okay, let's do a test, then. You already know you can find Terra's thoughts, so why don't you try finding mine? I'll try finding yours, too."

Rydia nodded. She perpared her mind the way she always did to Call, but instead of looking far away, she looked right next to her. In her mind's eye, she could see something like auras for her companions; Terra's was very clear, and the Esper looked much the same as she did in normal sight. Palom's and Edge's auras were both rather more faint, though Palom's was slightly clearer than Edge's. Porom's aura was strong, though not as strong as Terra's. Rydia tried Calling: _Porom? Can you hear me?_

To her relief, Rydia was able to hear Porom's reply. _Rydia, I can hear you, but it's faint. Let's try holding hands._

Rydia found it very strange to be talking with another person, rather than a Summons. Porom's voice sounded different in Rydia's mind compared to a being of magic. When the two joined hands, Porom's aura became much clearer, and her voice was much easier to hear. _This is the way we'll have to do it, _was the thought Rydia sent to Porom.

Porom reverted to normal speech. "Okay," she said aloud, "I think we can do this if we all hold hands." Esper, Caller, and twins all stood in a circle and held hands. Rydia once again prepared her mind as if to Call. First, she connected with Terra's mind. Terra let Rydia know that she was prepared. Then, Rydia connected with Porom, who had already joined thoughts with Palom. Through Rydia, the four minds were connected.

_We can do more together than we can do alone,_ Porom thought to everyone. _Let us all lend our power to Rydia so that she can accomplish the impossible. _Through this, Rydia just barely registered that behind them, Asura arrived with reinforcements in tow; apparently Queen of the Land of Summoned Monsters had requested the help of the Sylphs. Then, blocking out all of her senses except for those required for Calling, she began to look farther and farther away in her mind's eye.

As she held hands with the others, Rydia could feel their auras travel with her. She could feel their surprise at the cacophony of voices that could be heard in the world as Rydia traveled through it. Palom and Porom had been connected with each other before, but had never even tried to hear anyone or anything else. Neither had ever imagined how many and how loud were the other voices in the world. Rydia brought them all farther and farther away, and she once again came to that place where all of the voices disappeared into an all-consuming emptiness. She realized at this point that she did not know where to go. _Follow me,_ Terra told Rydia.

_We may not be able to find our way back, so Palom, you stay here to anchor us, _Rydia instructed.

_Roger that, _Porom replied.

Now Terra led the way, farther and farther away from the noise of Rydia's world, into total silence and blackness. Only each other's auras lit the way. Eventually, the feel of Palom's thoughts got so far away that Rydia instructed Porom to wait for them, like a trail of breadcrumbs back to reality. Then, only Terra and Rydia were truly together, pushing farther and farther away until, finally, they came to a planet. Just as Terra had described, it was black and dull, a dark sphere that was not open to any magic coming in. But now, with the help of the twins' power, Terra and Rydia could both see a myriad of pinpricks of light coming from the planet. They winked in and out of existence, fleeting. Suddenly, Rydia realized what they were. _Terra, those pinpricks... They're dreams! Leviathan told me that dreams are made of magic... So maybe we can reach your human self if..._

Terra's Esper form gasped. _Yes! _she cried. _I can feel it! She's dreaming right now! Don't let go of me, okay? _Esper-Terra tightened her grip on Rydia's hand, and the Caller reciprocated. The Esper reached her other arm out towards the planet, to one of those tiny pinpricks. Closer and closer, almost there, until she was able to put her hand in through the opening. Rydia heard her call out desperately, _Terra! Please! Come back to me! Let us be one again... Please... I need you..._

* * *

Terra finally fell asleep after a couple hours of her usual tossing and turning. She found it increasingly difficult to get to sleep, and she seldom dreamed, if at all, anymore. It was so strange that she could never sleep properly, but felt exhausted all the time. She felt as if her body was failing. It was as though she had lost the source of her energy. No matter how tired she was, sleep was always hard to come by.

Immediately upon falling asleep, she awoke, but knew instantly that it was a dream. All the children of the orphanage and Katarin and Duane stood around her bed. They were ever so slightly translucent. Above her bed, there was a ray of light shining down on all of them. Through the light, there was a hand reaching out for her. Terra looked up at it. The hand was her own, in Esper form. Then she heard her Esper self call out to her, _Please... I need you... _Terra's heart leapt. Suddenly, she knew that this was what she had been missing. Without her Esper form, she wasn't complete. She realized now that she wouldn't survive long without her other half. Despite fighting against it for so long, Terra knew now that they could not survive without each other.

Terra looked back to the children. "Momma..." one of them began. An older one continued, "We'll miss you, Momma!" Someone else said, "We know you have to leave, but it's okay. I don't want to see you hurt anymore, Momma." One of the older boys said, "I can take care of everyone! You have to go and get better!"

Terra's eyes filled with tears. She turned to Katarin and Duane. They looked back at her sadly, but nodded. Tears began streaming down Katarin's face as she said, "They're right, Terra. We all can tell you are getting worse and worse. You won't survive here. You have to go." As she said it, she and the kids all gave her a tight hug, then stepped back.

All of the kids were waving goodbye, smiling and crying at the same time. Duane stepped up and stood on the bed. "Here," he said, "I'll lift you up."

The kids all cried, "We love you, Momma! We'll miss you!" as Duane pulled Terra to her feet and wrapped his arms around her hips to lift her up into the air. She looked down on everyone and said tearfully, "Thank you. I love you all, too." Tears streamed down her face as she said goodbye. Then Terra reached for her Esper self's hand. She grasped the Esper's hand and wrist with both of her own hands. She felt herself lifted up and into the light. She came the light was in fact a tunnel surrounded by darkness, but now she could see her Esper self's face and body. At the end of the tunnel, they embraced, and as they did, Terra's Esper form faded and was absorbed into Terra's human body. She was vaguely aware of someone grabbing her arm and pulling her, taking her somewhere over a great distance, but her consciousness was fading fast. Terra was more tired than she had ever been in her life. With a sigh of relief, she gratefully surrendered to the true, recuperative sleep that had eluded her for so long.

* * *

Back in the cavern, Terra's face took on expression of intense relief. Her skin changed from bright pink to a pale flesh tone. Her hair became less wild; still wavy, but controlled; it's hue transitioned to a beautifully soft green. Her body changed from the vague form of an Esper that simply seemed to mimic human form to reveal the naked body of a beautiful woman. Transformation complete, Terra suddenly collapsed, letting go of Palom's hand and becoming dead weight. Rydia let go of Porom's hand to catch her as she fell, and she held Terra's body close around her waist, as if trying to drag her along.

Porom saw none of this, but responded to losing Rydia's hand by gasping, and then she put her hand on Rydia's shoulder. Edge wanted to go and help them somehow, but Asura held him back. "The connection between them was momentarily broken. Rydia and the others' minds may be lost in the darkness. Right now all we can do is wait." Edge gritted his teeth and continued to watch and wait. With growing concern and horror, he watched as ice crystals formed around Rydia's mouth and nose. Her complection turned paler and paler until it was slightly blue. Just watching this and doing nothing was one of the hardest things the ninja had ever had to do.

* * *

The bottom dropped out of Rydia's stomach, as if someone had dumped cold water on it. She had suddenly lost track of where she was going. _Porom!? _Rydia called into the darkness. _Help! I'm lost! I can't bring Terra back on my own! _Rydia pulled Terra closer, trying to hang on to her. She was like a rag doll in Rydia's grip. With Terra unconscious, and now the connection to Porom lost, Rydia felt terribly alone. The darkness closed in upon her and the biting cold ate at her thoughts and memories.

Rydia continued to call out Porom's name, but soon she forgot what that name meant. The darkness was consuming Rydia's thoughts, vague grayness obscuring her memories. _Who is Porom? _she thought suddenly. _I can't remember... _She stopped calling out for help. She had forgotten her urgency as her mind started to shut down. Her thoughts felt sluggish, and she was unbearably cold. She tried to snatch any thought that she could, but all of her memories seemed to float away before she could fasten on to them. Her head became terribly heavy, and she let her chin drop to her chest. Any concern for herself had been lost in the mind-numbing cold and darkness. Her vision grew dim as she looked down, but she found herself staring at the unconscious woman in her arms. The cold and darkness had emptied Rydia's mind of any thoughts at all. She gazed into the woman's face without recognition. Suddenly, her heart gave a painful lurch and its pace quickened. _She's so beautiful... _The thought came unbidden. Alarmed by the way her heart had tried to leap up to her throat, Rydia thought, _Why do I feel this way? _She once again tried to capture any thought, any memory that flowed so sluggishly through her brain. The Caller stood there for a long time, just gazing into the sleeping woman's face. She couldn't remember anything of what had happened, but some sort of fear pulled at her heart. Gradually, the Caller became aware once again of how terribly cold she felt. Even without thoughts or memories, that anxious fear that pulled at her heart as she gazed at the beautiful woman in her arms spurred her to movement.

The Caller had not moved very far when she heard a very faint voice in the distance. _Rydia!? Rydia, can you hear me!? _The voice called out into the darkness. The Caller failed to recognize it, but concentrated on the voice and kept telling herself, _We're in danger here. I have to follow that voice. _The Caller concentrated as hard as she could to hold on to those thoughts as she moved toward what she hoped was a way out. Finally, she reached the source. A young woman with brown hair and eyes and a sensible air about her. Looking concerned, she held her hands out to take Rydia's and to help support Terra. As Porom's hand touched the Caller's own, a bit of warmth soaked back into Rydia's mind, allowing her thoughts to come more easily.

She followed Porom back to the physical world and came back to herself. When she finally became aware of her surroundings once again, she realized just how freezing cold she was. Shivering from head to toe, she fell over, finding that her legs had no strength left in them. A moan of pain and alarm escaped her lips as she tried to open her eyes and was unable to do so. She felt someone wrap something around her and lift her up. "Hang on," Edge said softly into Rydia's ears, with more kindness in his voice than she had ever heard.

The next thing she heard was Asura's voice from nearby. "I wasn't prepared for this sort of physical danger. Take her and the other to the inn quickly, and put them both in front of the fire there. Potions and healing spells aren't going to help here." Rydia felt Edge hold her tightly as he all but ran with her in his arms to the inn. She also heard the flutter of wings very close to her. Soon, she heard the innkeeper's concerned voice as Edge sat back down and Rydia had more blankets wrapped around her.

Edge was still holding her, and now he began to rub her arms to try to work some circulation back into them. Rydia could hear the crackling of the fire next to her, and although she knew Edge was sitting with her right next to it, she could only barely feel its warmth. "E-e-dge," Rydia tried to speak through chattering teeth, "I c-c-can't s-see... I'm s-so t-t-tired..."

She felt Edge's hands cover her eyes. "Your eyelashes are frozen together," he said softly. "And you can't go to sleep until you're warmer." Rydia said nothing. She simply tried to hang on to the sounds around her, trying to remain awake until it was safe. She felt the warmth of Edge's fingers over her eyes as he tried to melt the ice on her eyelashes. Wetness formed around her eyes as the ice crystals melted. It was a strange sensation, feeling as if she were crying though she knew that she wasn't. Eventually, Edge lifted his fingers away and said, "Okay, try now."

Rydia opened her eyes with some effort. Her vision was still blurry, but she was glad to be able to see at all. She looked to one side, and saw Terra wrapped in blankets and held by Asura's many arms. Terra looked terribly pale, but she was not shivering and seemed to be fast asleep. "Is s-s-she g-going to be o-k-kay?" Rydia asked, still shivering pretty violently.

Asura looked up at Rydia and replied, "Yes, I think so. She was also chilled, but asleep." Rydia now noticed the Sylphs, who were adding wood to the fire. The twins were both sitting on a couch in the inn, and more of the Sylphs brought them hot drinks and extra blankets for them. The two were obviously also quite cold, but not in the life-threatening hypothermia Rydia had been.

Rydia's shivering finally abated somewhat, and she asked if it was safe for her to go to sleep yet, speech slurred with fatigue. Asura examined her closely, and decided that it would be safe now for Rydia to go to sleep. Once given permission, she managed a very slurred, "Thank you," to everyone and fell asleep nearly immediately, comfortable in Edge's arms.

* * *

Dust motes of light flowed like a river through the vastness of magical space. Rydia nor Terra noticed it, but a flow of magic, like the arm of a spiral galaxy of stars, was flowing toward the Caller's world. A great number of the motes converged on one point. High atop Mt. Ordeals, in the very same cave that was the stage for Cecil's transformation, a pile of ash appeared. At first, it seemed normal and totally inert. Then the pile began to smolder darkly with a very low heat. At that moment, a dark creature raised his head. Although far away at the Sealed Cave's entrance in the Underground, the shadowy monster seemed to have heard something. He began to sniff, like a wolf tasting the wind to find its prey. Giggling to himself madly, he stretched his arms above his head and reached towards his back with his claws. His laughing turned to a growl as he tore at his shoulder blades, but somehow the wound he opened in what passed for skin just grew outward as it was torn apart. Black wings sprouted from the thing's back. Huffing with effort, the creature now dug his claws into the hard ground as the wings grew larger. Once they had taken shape, he grinned with many sharp teeth and began cackling maniacally as he took off into flight.

* * *

Almost everyone in the orphanage woke up at the same moment. Duane and Katarin both sat up suddenly from their slumber. They looked questioningly at each other, and saw the answer in the other's eyes. With some effort, holding on to her swollen belly, Katarin levered herself out of bed. Duane checked on the baby in his crib, and finding that he was still fast asleep, followed Katarin into the room where the other children slept, his hand on her shoulder. The kids were also sitting up in bed, rubbing their eyes sleepily. Some of them were mumbling, "Momma...?" The older ones were more awake, and noticed as Duane and Katarin walked into the room. They looked questioningly at the young adults, and the two nodded. Everyone got out of bed of their own accord and trooped together to Terra's room.

Everyone knew what they would find there, but it didn't lessen the emotions involved. Some of the younger kids sniffled and cried a bit. The older ones, though also sad, did their best to cheer the other children up by saying that at least Momma was somewhere that she could get better now, that they were sure that she was safe, and happy again. Duane and Katarin felt immensely proud at the behavior of these older children. Looking sadly at the empty bed where Terra was last, they nevertheless smiled. Duane whispered, "You saved us all. Thanks to you, we'll be okay now."

Katarin leaned in close to Duane's ear and whispered, "I can't believe it. Our second baby, and now without her help. You're right, though. She taught us a lot. We'll be okay." She looked down to her stomach, running her hands gently over it. "Now I know it must be a girl, and I know what her name will be."

Duane just smiled back, kissed Katarin on the cheek and replied simply, "I know."


	5. Chapter 4

_**Author's Note: I guess it should be noted here (if you didn't already notice) that I'm basically going off the original SNES release of both games. I've been playing the GBA version of FFIV, but haven't been able to finish it. I had a bit of writer's block there for a while, but although you will hate me at the end of this chapter, I think you'll agree it was worth the wait. Let me know! **_

* * *

_What a strange dream,_ Terra thought as she opened her eyes after what she knew to be a long sleep, if her throbbing headache was any indication. She stared at the ceiling for a time, dismissing the dream, no matter how real it seemed, and thinking over what she needed to do today. She expected to hear the sounds of a crying baby or rowdy children at any moment. Then she realized that the ceiling she was looking at was not hers. She wrinkled her brow. It didn't make sense. Then she felt the warmth in her chest that had been missing ever since that fateful day she had lost her magic.

She gasped and sat bolt upright. She looked wildly around her to see a completely unfamiliar room. She was in an unfamiliar bed. She looked down at herself, gasped again and clutched the sheets around her body. "Where are my clothes?"

"Well, you-" Terra jumped and yelled when she heard someone reply. She looked around to see another woman in the room, coming in through the door behind her. A young woman, very pretty, with emerald green hair and a shirt to match. Her heart pounded from the shock. The woman hesitated. Once she thought Terra was over her initial shock, she continued, "Well, I mean, you're Esper form didn't wear any clothes, so... I guess that's why you don't have your clothes now. You look about my size, though. Should I get you something of mine?"

Terra was at a loss. Her mind was all questions. After opening and closing her mouth and failing to get any sound to come out, the question she finally managed was, "Who are you?"

The young woman looked crestfallen. "You don't remember?" Terra shook her head. The other woman sighed. "Well, maybe I should've seen that coming. I'm Rydia. I'm the reason you're here. Don't you remember anything that happened?"

Terra's eyes widened. "You mean that dream... It was real? Where am I? How do you know me?" She thought to herself, _I thought I was done waking up in strange places with no memory of what happened. Argh._

Rydia sighed. "Look, before we get into this, why don't I get you some clothes?" Rydia went to a dresser on the other side of the room. After rummaging around a bit, she came out with an emerald dress with gold trim that matched everything else she wore. "How's this? I guess we're not exactly the same size, so a dress would probably be best." She laid the dress out on the bed next to Terra and left.

Terra threw the dress on as quickly as she could. It was obvious that she and Rydia were not exactly the same size; the dress fit a little bit loosely around her hips and chest while it was just barely tight across her shoulders. It was also just an inch or two short of where it should have laid. She noticed a mirror above the dresser and went to look in it. Terra was mildly astonished at her own appearance. Not just the strange and mildly ill-fitting clothing, but she realized that she had lost a lot of weight over the past year. She also looked drawn and tired. Sighing, she went and sat back down on the bed just as Rydia knocked and poked her head in. "All set?" She asked. Terra nodded. Rydia sat down next to her on the bed. She gazed very intently into Terra's eyes. Terra felt herself flush a bit, flustered under such intense scrutiny.

Rydia sat back and sighed. "I had thought that you'd know what your Esper form did while she was here, but I guess not. I'll start from the beginning, then. I basically know what happened on your world; we felt it when the magic from your world was thrown out. You and your Esper self were separated from each other. I am a Caller, so I was able to bring her here, so she'd live. But she needed you. So we brought you here."

Terra took a moment to consider and absorb this new information. She concentrated on the warmth she once again felt in her heart. Finally, she said, "You have to understand... I didn't know anything about my Esper side for a long time. She was dormant inside of me, and the only clue I had was that I knew how to use magic naturally when no one else could. Then, one day, I encountered an Esper for the first time. I... lost myself. I lost control of my power. I eventually worked through it... and I can use that power, but... it's not like we can communicate with each other. I think... I wouldn't be able to understand memories of being in two places at once. Maybe that's why I don't remember." Terra paused. "But anyway, why did you bring my Esper self here in the first place?"

Rydia looked mildly abashed. "Well... Like I said, we knew when magic was thrown out of your world. Leviathan said that magic can't die; it has to _go_ somewhere, so he figured some of it was likely to come here, since our world already has a lot of magic, and magic tends to gather together. With me so far?" Terra nodded. "Okay, so then he said that that probably meant that something evil was on its way. That evil things have hate to hold on to, so that it would stay enough like itself to survive the trip and cause some trouble here. So then we thought that we could lure it to us so we could take care of it right away. But then I found you instead. Or, your Esper half anyway."

Terra nodded slowly. "Well, since I'm here, I guess you didn't think I was evil."

Rydia grinned. "Well, yes. I mean no. Erm..." Rydia flushed. "I guess I... Well..."

"I see..." Terra didn't really see, but didn't want to see Rydia continue to trip over her words indefinitely. "Well... What do you plan to do with me now? I understand that my Esper self and I needed each other to survive, but... What will I do here? Do you want something from me? And... Can you send me back?"

Rydia's face fell. "I... don't think so. Magic on your world can only exist in dreams now. Your Esper self tried to go back when she was first separated from you. I think it would cause you to separate all over again if we tried to put you back." She frowned and shook her head. "I'm sorry." Rydia looked genuinely sorrowed by breaking this news. Terra, while not terribly surprised, was still saddened to know that she would never see her friends, or especially any of the children, again. She looked up to the ceiling and closed her eyes, sighing. Rydia gently put her hand on Terra's shoulder. "Look... I... Calling your Esper self... I'm not sure how to say this. I felt her mind. That's how I knew you were not evil. I know you don't know anything about _me_, but I already like _you_. I'm sorry I can't send you back home... but I hope we can make a home for you here."

Terra's heart leaped. She was torn between happiness and suspicion. The strange thing was that, somewhere deep down, she _did_ already feel like she knew and liked this girl. She felt inordinately happy to hear her offer of a home, but her logical side told her to be suspicious. She had dealt too many times with people who only wanted her power. On the other hand, what choice did she have? Trying very hard to school her expression into nonchalance, she formulated a reply. "Well... I appreciate that. But I think I need to get to know you and your world first."

Rydia nodded. "Understandable." Although the Caller tried to hide it, it was obvious to Terra that Rydia felt disappointed with her reply. "Well, then, what would you like first? Information or travel?"

Terra thought this over. "I want to see your world with my own eyes."

For the rest of that day, Rydia re-introduced Terra to everyone present that she knew; they all seemed relieved that they were both okay. Edge seemed a bit aloof about the whole thing, but everyone else (the Twins especially) seemed genuinely interested in Terra and offered her any help she needed in adjusting to the new world. Terra, for her part, was polite but reserved. She took in everything about her surroundings and all of the new information she gathered, but tried to remain neutral toward it. She found it hard to bring herself to trust yet. Rydia took Terra shopping and got her some clothes of her own and some new armor. "Even though the big threat is gone, there are still some monsters around. It pays to be careful," she explained. Terra didn't have any money, so Rydia bought everything for her and offered her house as a place for Terra to stay temporarily. Terra protested the purchases, but Rydia replied, "I learned a lot and became strong for the battles that happened here. Whenever I want money, I can go fight some monsters. Who knows why, but they always drop plenty of money." She grinned.

Terra couldn't help but laugh in reply. "Yes, I always wondered about that, too."

The two ended up staying up late into the night, sitting in Rydia's kitchen and telling each other all about the battles they had been through and what the other's world was like. Despite her best efforts, Terra couldn't help but feel connected to Rydia somehow, and genuinely liked her. When the two finally went to bed, Rydia slept on the couch and let Terra take her bed. Terra went to bed troubled. She just wasn't sure what to make of it all; a whole new world, people who may or may not be on her side, and this inexplicable feeling of wanting to trust them. She spent that night mourning the loss of her home world and cried herself to sleep.

The next day, Terra announced that she would like to help Rydia earn her money back. Edge and the twins, also looking for something to do with their day, decided to join the girls in their monetary endeavors. Looking at the group of five, Edge remarked, "What a magic-heavy group! Someone needs to take point with me."

Rydia laughed. "What, you can't do it all yourself, Mister Tough Ninja?"

Edge rounded on her to snarl a reply, but Terra stepped between them. "Actually, I can take point with you. I can use magic well, but I'm fairly good at hand-to-hand also. I just need a good sword. I'm not very good with whips, and daggers are... serviceable, but..." Edge just nodded and handed her one of his katana as they headed out.

The party spent the day spelunking and fighting monsters, and at the end of the day they were exhausted. They did, however, have a tidy little sum of gold to divvy up between them, and Terra could tell that she had earned some grudging respect from Edge from the way she handled herself in battle. Terra went to bed that night so physically exhausted that she could not brood and fell almost immediately to sleep.

While there was never any sunlight in the Land of the Summoned Monsters, Terra woke up the next day knowing it was still quite early. Light from the street oil lamps filtered in through the curtains, and light peeked out from the bottom of the door to Rydia's bedroom. Terra heard Rydia's voice through the door. "I don't want to throw her into possible danger right away, but I don't want to leave her by herself, either. What do you think we should do?"

Terra got out of bed and crossed the room. As she neared the door, she heard Edge's voice reply, "Why not leave her here? I don't see why she has to come." Terra eased the door open and poked her head through it. She heard a grunt as she saw Rydia elbow Edge's side.

"What's going on?" Terra asked.

"Well... We've gotten a report of something strange. See, the Chancellor of Edge's kingdom wanted to see how he was and maybe call him back home, but on the way the Eblan ship was flagged down at the town of Agart. The people of Agart, a town literally right at the entrance to the Underworld, saw some kind of creature come out of the Underworld. That never happens. Only people travel between the two. The creature flew off to the east from there. That puts it going towards Mysidia. That's where Palom and Porom come from." Rydia paused and gave Terra a pleadingly apologetic look. "I have a really bad feeling about this, Terra. I want to go with them to see what's wrong, but I'd worry about you. I know that Asura at least would make sure everyone treated you well, but..."

Terra attempted a smile. "Well, then, I'll just have to come with you." Mostly Terra wanted to think that Rydia really cared about her well being. A small voice in the back of her head responded with the thought that Rydia really just wanted to keep an eye on her, that no one really trusted Terra just yet.

Palom, Porom, Edge, Rydia, and Terra all packed a few possessions and stocked up on supplies. Rydia explained that the fastest way to get to Mysidia was to take the Falcon. "You're kidding!" Terra exclaimed in surprise. "My comrade, Setzer, had an airship by that name, too. What a coincidence. I wonder what else is similar between our two worlds?" Later, Terra stood at the prow of the airship as they flew over the lava oceans of the Underworld. "So, this is all underground?" she asked Rydia, who was standing near her.

"Well, yes. We'll be coming up onto the surface soon." Edge was piloting, so he and Terra were the only two who stayed in the same place through the flight. Rydia and the twins all seemed to be rather restless, pacing the ship and leaning restlessly again the railings in turns. A few times the twins ran back and forth, chasing each other over some fight or another. In fact, the sun was decidedly towards late afternoon by the time the Falcon reached the surface. Terra let the wind flow through her hair. It had been a while since she had felt the exhilaration of flight. She took in the beauty of the blue oceans and skies that passed by. Looking back once or twice, she saw Rydia and Edge chatting about something. For all that they seemed to disagree often, they seemed comfortable with each other. Terra felt something cold claw at the pit of her stomach when she saw them together, though she couldn't understand why. Around sunset, they made landfall. Far below, Terra could see a city. "That's where we're going!" Rydia commented helpfully.

"Hold on tight! We're landing!" Edge called as he brought the airship down. Terra found herself relishing the feeling she always got during descent, where her stomach would lighten and her whole body seemed to try to float. Mostly, though, it was a relief to be rid of whatever it was that twisted her stomach into knots.

Everyone agreed that there would be no point in trying to get anything else done today, and that it would be best to stay the night in Mysidia, after trying to gather some information. Terra was fascinated to see a city where everyone wore robes of some sort or another. When Terra asked why everyone dressed like that, Rydia replied that it was because they were all magic-users. "All of them?" Terra asked in surprise. "Almost no one on my world had magic."

"Well that's one place where our worlds are very different. I'd say pretty much every town has mages in it; this is just a place that mages come to study or just to be with people like themselves." Rydia paused and continued with a hint of sadness in her voice, "But I am the only Caller. I guess I live in the Land of the Summoned Monsters because they understand me best." She gave a Terra a sort of forced smile and continued, "Come on, we're falling behind! The twins are going to introduce you to the Elder." Indeed, the twins were all but running down the central avenue toward the largest building in town.

The Elder, it turned out, was a strict but seemingly kind old man. He laughed when Palom and Porom practically knocked him over in their happiness at being back, but then scolded them for their lack of manners. When introduced, he turned very wise and observant eyes on Terra's. Once again, she couldn't help but flush under scrutiny, but she held his gaze. He seemed pleased with whatever it was he saw in her, but did not comment on it. When asked if there had been any sightings of the creature, he answered, "Indeed. Many of the townsfolk saw something black fly across the sky that did not look like bird nor any monster from around here. I can also tell you that whatever it is, it is heading for Mt. Ordeals."

"Really? How do you know?" Rydia responded immediately. Porom glared at Rydia with a "You Should Know Better Than To Ask That" look. Rydia quickly amended, "If you say so, then it must be. But can we wait until tomorrow to head there?"

The Elder thought for a moment. "I think so, yes. Through prayer, we've learned that something has happened at Mt. Ordeals, in the very room where Cecil underwent his transformation. Nothing truly evil can enter there, so I think that whatever this creature is will wait for you to arrive."

Terra privately wondered how the old man could know these things, but thought better of asking about it upon seeing Porom's face. The twins stayed in their old bedrooms that night, but Rydia, Edge, and Terra all stayed at the inn for the night. Terra thought about the unfamiliar landscapes she had passed that day, how many things were different about this world, and what was the same. Then her thoughts turned toward Rydia. Somehow, it was something she had been unconsciously avoiding. She turned over and could make out the Rydia's sleeping form in the dark. Her mouth went dry and her stomach felt uneasy. _Why do I feel this way? I don't understand. Why is it that I want to be near her? I only came because I didn't want to leave her side. Why? _These questions went unanswered as she finally drifted off to sleep.

* * *

_"Leo?" Terra asked in shock as she saw the military man before her. She was standing on the plateau of a mountain, in view of the old Imperial Capitol. Leo turned to face her. He smiled and nodded. "But... You're dead."_

_"Yes, I am," Leo replied, very matter-of-fact. "You're dreaming." He smiled again. A breeze started up and made his cape flutter._

_Terra gave Leo a confused look. "But why? Why am I dreaming about you?"_

_Leo cocked his head to one side. "Because I told you once that you would someday understand human emotion, even though you were unsure at the time. I tried to tell you what love was, and later you said you thought you understood what I was trying to say. You did find love; the kind shared between a mother and children. I'm here to tell you that you misunderstood me, but you will understand what I really meant very soon. Didn't you ever ask Duane and Katarin about their relationship? How they felt when they first met each other?"_

_Terra shook her head. "I don't understand. I have a vague idea of what you mean... But how could I feel that way? There's no one for me to feel that way about!"_

_Leo chuckled. It was a deep, rich sound. "I thought that, too. There are only men in the military, you know."_

_Terra wrinkled her brow. "What?"_

_Leo chuckled again. "Don't worry, you'll understand it one day soon."_

* * *

The next day the group of five set out to Mt. Ordeals via the Falcon. Edge set her down just at the beginning of the foothills of the mountain. As they walked along, in between encounters with fairly weak undead monsters, Terra asked Rydia what had happened here over two years ago that was so important. Disappointingly, she had Palom and Porom tell the story of Cecil's transformation from Dark Knight to Paladin and about the room at the top of the mountain where it happened. "But I'm not sure what we'll find there now," Porom concluded. "After that, I thought it would just be a normal room or something. Without the Legend... There shouldn't be anything there."

"Well, I guess we're about to find out," Terra replied.

It was nearing sunset by the time they reached the top of the mountain. They had gotten turned around once or twice, to Edge's great annoyance, which he voiced loudly to the twins nearly endlessly. Finally, they reached the suspension bridge where Palom and Porom said they had fought Scarmiglione, the Fiend of Earth. Although the crossing was nervous, nothing happened. They went to enter the famous room of Cecil's transformation, prepared to face some sort of trap, and still nothing happened.

Inside the crystal room, the open door let in the scarlet light of sunset. As soon as everyone was inside, the door pulled itself shut, but the fiery light remained. The opposite wall was made of mirrors of crystal, and all five gasped as they looked at it. The reflection shown in the mirror was normal, except for Terra's. Her Esper half's fiery gaze met her as Terra looked at herself in the mirror.

She walked forward, closer and closer to her reflection. Terra saw fire dancing in the Esper's eyes. She reached her hand toward her reflection. When their fingers touched, Terra's Esper reflection threw her head back and screeched with the call of a bird. Fire burst from her mouth and flowed upward, forming the shape of outspread wings. Terra gasped as the fiery shape solidified in form to reveal someone she recognized; the Esper Phoenix.

"I am the gathered magic of all of the Espers." As she spoke, her words echoed and filled the room. Power crackled in her voice. "I have risen from the ashes of their Magicite. Evil has followed us here. He wishes to use us against our will, but you can prevent it. The power exists in this world to restore us to true life. I had only the power to bring us here; now our power and destiny lays in your hands. Please do not fail us."

"Wait!" Terra called, but even as her mouth opened, the fiery form of Phoenix was diminishing into a red ball of flame, condensing smaller and smaller into a ball of white light, until Terra's refection held in her cupped hands a pile of Magicite shards. The Esper held the shards out in her hands, stretching them towards the surface of the mirror. Terra, still unsure of what was happening here, nevertheless held her cupped hands up to the mirror's surface. Terra's reflection touched her fingertips to human Terra's and lifted up her palms until they were flat with the surface of the mirror. All of the shards somehow fell through the mirror as if there were no barrier there at all, to rest in the human's hands. Terra looked down at the shards in her hands; certainly none of them were enough of a crystal to be usable now, but she could still feel warmth emanate from them; a pulsing warmth like a heartbeat. Terra felt tears come to her eyes. "But how? How can I bring you back?" Not expecting a reply, she still felt slightly disappointed that she did not receive one. She looked back up to the mirror to find that her reflection had returned to normal.

Rydia put her hand gently on Terra's shoulder. "We'll figure this out. We can talk with the Elder of Mysidia and Leviathan; either of them may know something. Try not to worry too much just yet." Terra nodded and turned back to the rest of the party.

"These are my people." Terra tried to answer the questions in their eyes. "These are the Espers who... Died. All of them. They were murdered for their power. After they die, their power crystallizes into Magicite, which they let us have to fight the evil responsible for their deaths. But this... It's just pieces. These can't be used. We couldn't bring whole Magicite back from the dead, and believe me, I wanted to, one of these shards is my father. But why do they think that we can take just shards and bring them back? I want to help them, but how...?"

Porom gave Terra a very sympathetic look. "You've been through a lot. Now I feel like we must have been right in helping you." Edge even nodded his head in agreement.

Palom nodded his head vigorously and said, "Terra, if you want to do this, we'll find a way! Where there's a will, there's a way, you know!"

Rydia cupped her hands around Terra's. The half-Esper's heart fluttered at the bottom of her stomach. The Caller looked into Terra's eyes. "Palom's right. We'll help you. I guess the only question is whether or not you have the will to do it."

Terra took a deep, slightly shuddering breath. "It always burned in me, the injustice of it all. I wished and wished they weren't dead. All my parents ever wanted was for Espers and humans to live in harmony with each other. If they think that it can be done here, on this world, that we can live in peace and that they can be brought back from the dead, I will not rest until they are restored." She looked around to the other four, seeing the determination set in their eyes. They nodded at her one by one. Terra felt tears begin to well up in her eyes again. "Thank you."

Edge put his hands up. "You're welcome, just don't get all soft on us now, alright? We need to get back to Mysidia. So that means we need to set up camp for the night. There's a camp site just back across the bridge, so let's set up there and head back to town in the morning." Everyone agreed. Terra couldn't bear to put the shards away quite yet and carried them still cupped in her hands. Edge pulled her aside as they left the crystal room. "You know, I didn't trust you at first. You put Rydia especially in a lot of danger. But seeing you fight honorably and set yourself to a just purpose... You've earned my respect. Just thought you should know." Terra nodded her thanks.

The two had just turned to join the others when Porom screamed. A black winged monster dove at her, slashing at her face with its claws. Palom and Rydia had been just ahead; they turned when Porom screamed. Palom shot a fire spell at the beast, who dodged easily, cackling as it turned toward Terra and Edge.

Terra's breath caught in her throat. Pure fear clawed at the pit of her stomach. There was only one person who laughed like that. As it turned toward her, the creature's white face stood out in contrast to its black and mutilated body. "Kefka..." Terra whispered the name. It finally looked directly at her, and she could see recognition in its eyes. Panic fogged Terra's brain. "No... No. No! NO! We killed you!!" Rage welled up inside of Terra, and she released the power of her Esper form. The Magicite shards clattered to the ground as she drew her sword and launched herself at the cackling monster. Terra barely registered that Rydia's whip came to wrap around on of the beast's arms. It held him still long enough for Terra to thrust her sword directly into his chest, where his black heart should have been.

Complete stillness and silence for an instant. Then, Kefka smiled with fangs he never had in Terra's world. "You set me free," he sneered. Ignoring the sword in his chest, he grabbed Terra by the shoulder and flung her roughly aside. Terra lost her balance and her footing. She expected to hit ground but suddenly realized that there was no ground underneath her. She heard someone scream her name. Then, a whirl of gray, then blue, then green. Pain. Darkness.

* * *

Rydia's throat went dry when she heard Porom scream. She turned back to see Porom crouched down and clutching her face. The world seemed to move in slow motion as Palom shot a fire spell at the creature that hovered menacingly over Porom. It flew out of the way of the spell and turned away from them towards Edge and Terra, who were catching up. Rydia watched as all color left Terra's face. For a moment, she seemed paralyzed. Then, "No... No. No! NO! We killed you!!" Terra gritted her teeth and grabbed her sword. Rydia gasped as Terra suddenly transformed into her Esper self. Rydia used her whip to hold the creature where he was as soon as she saw Terra was going to launch herself at the thing. Her momentary relief upon seeing the creature stabbed through the chest was dashed when it bared its fangs and said something to Terra that Rydia couldn't catch.

Rydia screamed when the creature pushed Terra aside, right off the side of the mountain. "Terra, no!!" Rydia cried out. The beast looked at the Caller. She noticed for the first time that while its body was black and mutilated, its face was chalk white and mostly human. Of all things, it had markings like a jester on its face. Rydia saw beyond the creature Edge throwing something at it, but in that instant the monster grabbed Rydia's whip, using it to throw her off balance and tumbling after Terra off the precipice to the ground far below.


	6. Chapter 5

_**Author's note: Okay, I decided to redo that. Let me know if you liked the first version better, but I'm going with this, because I think the first version was a mistake. -_-;;;**_

_**

* * *

**_

"Terra! No!!" Rydia cried, looking in horror at the place where Terra disappeared. Distracted, she was suddenly sent sprawling by the monster's pull on her whip. She was pulled violently forward by keeping a stubborn hold on her whip. She lost her balance then, let go as she put her hands down to catch herself, and realized there was no ground under her hands to catch herself with. She fell sideways, head first, of the cliff after Terra. She screamed in fear, but there was another part of her mind that stayed calm. A solution came to her quickly. _Sylphs! Help us!! _she Called. Her field of vision was blurred confusion as she was falling, but sight was not necessary to Call. Instantly, she felt tiny hands grab her and slow her descent. They pulled her away from the dangerous protrusions of the cliff and farther out into thin air. Without even looking around her, she threw off some of the hands. "Help Terra!" she yelled at them, and felt them zoom off below her. With only two of the Sylphs left to help her, Rydia's descent suddenly became rapid again. Ignoring this, she looked around wildly, straining her sight to find Terra; she just glimpsed the other four Sylphs guiding her along a different flight trajectory when she hit the canopy of the forest surrounding Mt. Ordeals. The smaller twigs and branches of the emergent layer poked and slashed at Rydia's skin, but these were not enough to stop her descent. A grunt of pain escaped Rydia's lips as she fell through the twigs and hit larger branches. Pain erupted through her chest and back as the wind was knocked out of her. Rydia lost her connection with the Sylphs as her body was hit this way and that descending through the maze of canopy branches. Her vision blacked out and she saw stars as her head connected with one last branch before she fell several feet to land in a heap at the base of a towering oak tree.

Rydia nearly passed out. She felt pain in places that she didn't know existed until a moment ago. Her head hurt something awful and she felt sure that her right arm was broken. Having fallen back upon landing, she attempted opening her eyes. She felt immediately nauseated and shut her eyes quickly. Gasping and groaning in pain, she turned onto her right side, being careful of her right arm. Using her left arm, she was able to push herself up to a sitting position. _I have to get up. I have to find Terra, _Rydia thought, eyes closed, her face a grimace of pain as she she took rapid, painful, shallow breaths. Thankfully, although she undoubtedly had terrible bruises all over her legs, nothing in them seemed to be broken. A few minutes of painful work finally got Rydia to a standing position. Opening her eyes again, she swayed where she stood, fighting nausea and vertigo.

She realized that her items must have been lost in the fall, and she only had so much magical power left to Call with. _Just take a step. Terra needs me. One step. One step. One step. Walk. _Rydia took baby steps to get herself moving. Using the residual feeling of connectedness from when Terra was in her Esper form, she could sort of feel where Terra had fallen; closer to the base of the mountain. Holding her breath and gritting her teeth against her various pains, she forced herself to stumble in that direction. Rydia emerged into a clearing near the edge of the woods. Terra lay there, in human form, her limbs at crazy angles. She wasn't moving. Rydia's throat constricted as she fought back tears and panic. Terra's head was oozing blood, which was beginning to saturate the ground underneath her.

Hyperventilating in anxiety, Rydia stumbled over to where Terra lay, collapsing onto her knees beside her. She pulled Terra into her lap, who was completely limp, obviously unconscious. "Terra, please..." she whispered, holding Terra's head against her chest, staining her own clothes with blood. She got enough of a grip on herself to Call once again for help, this time for Asura. Rydia's connection with Asura was never perfect; what she would do was always random healing, because Rydia could never quite communicate to Asura what she needed. The queen appeared briefly, her ever-changing expressions a blur. As she disappeared, Rydia felt her right arm mend itself into some usefulness and much of the pain in her chest and head abated. The Caller watched as Terra's head wound closed, leaving behind a thin white scar that went from above her left temple up into her scalp. Terra's eyes began to move behind their lids and she uttered a weak moan. Now Rydia lost her battle against hysteria. She began to laugh and cry at the same time out of sheer relief.

Terra's eyes just barely fluttered, trying to open. "Rydia...?" she managed, in a dazed voice.

Rydia hugged Terra tightly. She stifled her sobbing and managed to choke, "Oh Terra, thank goodness, I thought I'd lost you. I'm so glad you're okay... I..." Rydia couldn't help it; she started crying again.

Terra managed to open her eyes and tried to sit up. Rydia released her death-grip and helped Terra right herself. Recovering quickly, Terra seemed to be regaining some sense of equilibrium. Rydia's vision was mostly blurred with tears, but she could see that Terra was staring at her own blood on Rydia's clothing with a shocked expression. "Is that my blood?" Terra asked. Rydia just nodded in reply. "Then... You saved me, didn't you?" Rydia nodded again. Wiping her eyes, the Caller couldn't meet Terra's gaze and ended up staring at her lap. After a moment of Rydia hiccuping and trying to stop her tears, Terra finally asked, "Why... Did you do that? Do you care about me so much? Do I... Mean that much to you?"

Even though she didn't think it possible at that point, Rydia's heart leapt into her mouth and pounded harder than ever. She looked up for a moment into Terra's confused eyes. _I don't know why, but you do. Oh Terra, my chest aches whenever you're near me. But what will you think of me if I tell you? _These thoughts jostled through Rydia's mind in a flash. Fear and hope clutched at the pit of her stomach. She closed her eyes and took a shuddering breath. _This can't wait. If something were to happen, like today almost did... I couldn't live with myself. I can't wait. I don't want to wait._

Rydia's lips trembled as she began to speak. "Terra... Ever since you came..." Rydia's voice broke. She took another breath and then said in a rush, "This is going to sound so stupid. I know I haven't known you very long, but I feel connected to you and now that you're here I only want to spend my time with you. And whenever I look at you, my heart races and I don't know why but I think that now I can't imagine you not being here anymore. And after what just happened, I realized I couldn't bear it if something happened to you, especially you never knowing how I felt, but I understand if you don't want to be with me, because I don't know why you'd feel that way about me-"

Suddenly Rydia felt Terra's cool hand touch her flushed cheeks. Before she knew what was happening, she felt Terra's warm, soft lips against her own. Rydia felt as if a box of fireworks had gone off inside her chest. She felt lightheaded as her heart tried to burst through her rib cage. A soft moan escaped Rydia's throat. Terra cupped Rydia's face in trembling hands as she pulled back.

Rydia opened her eyes. She hadn't wanted the kiss to end. Terra's eyes shone wetly as she smiled at Rydia; a soft, truly happy smile that Rydia had never seen before. It was like the sun breaking through dark and heavy clouds after an eternity of rain. Rydia took one of Terra's hands into her own, pulling it toward her chest. Taking another shuddering breath, she eventually managed to ask, "Why...?"

Terra tilted her head to one side as her eyes looked downward. "I... Well, because I feel the same way. But if... If that wasn't the right thing to do..." Terra fell silent, pressing her lips together and closing her eyes.

Rydia leaned forward. She whispered into Terra's ear, "No. I've... I've wanted to...." She kissed Terra's cheek tenderly, putting her hand to Terra's chin and turning her to look into Rydia's eyes again. She intertwined her fingers lightly into Terra's hair and coaxed her into another kiss. Rydia couldn't get enough of this lightheaded euphoria she felt from kissing Terra. She lost herself in Terra's scent, in the softness of her hair, the warmth of Terra's lips against her own.

It seemed like an eternity or maybe a fraction of a second before they parted again, now both breathing more heavily and with shuddering breaths. Rydia eventually worked some moisture back into her mouth to say, "Terra, I've never felt this way about anyone."

Terra smiled. "Neither have I. But, you know, General Leo once told me that I would know what love is. I thought that I understood, back when I was taking care of children who loved me. I loved them very much. But now I understand that that's not what Leo meant. I think... I think he meant this. I..." Terra looked off into the distance.

Rydia pulled both of Terra's hands into her lap. She felt Terra's hands still trembling, just like her own. She squeezed Terra's hands in a comforting way. "I think you must be right. But I was afraid at first because... Well, I've never heard of, you know... two women getting married or anything." Rydia's heart was still racing, and she felt a lump in her throat that was hard to speak through. "And I thought you would never like me back because I took you away from a home you loved."

Terra looked back into Rydia's eyes, smiling. "Well, I didn't realize it at the time, but I think Leo was referring to this, too. I think... Well, I think he loved another man. And he thought that since I didn't have feelings at all for any men I had met that maybe.... I just hadn't met the right woman." Terra blushed slightly, her smile turning more shy. "And I did love the children and my life on my world... but... I really wasn't whole without my magic. I was dying. You actually saved me by bringing me here."

Rydia felt a point of tension that she had unconsciously been holding deep inside of her release. She smiled, sighing with unexpected relief. "Terra, I'm so glad...."

Terra smiled in return, then suddenly looked beyond Rydia, focusing on something in the distance and frowning. "What is it?" Rydia asked, looking around. Terra pointed toward a black dot in the sky, a just visible silhouette against the last dying embers of the sun. "Is that... him? The evil from your world?"

Terra sighed. "Yes. His name is Kefka. He must be stopped. I only hope the others are okay...."

Rydia felt sick to her stomach as unspecified fear clutched at her. Ignoring it, she said instead, "The twins are tougher than you think, and Edge is a master of his art. They must be okay."

* * *

Hanging back from Rydia and Palom, Porom waited on the bridge for Edge and Terra to catch up. Suddenly, something black and shadowy appeared in front of her, and attacked her before she knew what was happening. Porom felt searing pain as terrible claws slashed at her face. She screamed and ducked, clutching her torn skin. She couldn't see or open her eyes through the pain, but she could feel blood pouring through her fingers. There was yelling and movement going on around her, but she was in no position to respond. _I'm the White Mage here, _she told herself firmly, fighting off pain and fear. She clenched her teeth. _Healer, heal thyself, _she commanded herself furiously, blocking out the pain to cast a healing spell.

She felt the customary warmth of magical healing; the wounds under her hands closed and stopped bleeding. Still on her knees, she looked up just in time to see Rydia tumble off the precipice. "Ryd-" she began to scream, but cut herself short when she realised she had called the creature's attention back to her. Just then, as it was distracted, a fireball slammed into the creature. It screeched and turned toward Palom, but was then hit by a dagger Edge threw at it. Turning towards Edge, it saw the Magicite shards beyond the ninja and dove towards them. Cackling madly, it dodged Edge's attacks and Palom's spells, grabbing as many of the shards as its talons would carry, and flew off over the precipice and out of sight.

Stunned silence followed the creature's departure. Porom finally looked up and around her. Someone else was missing. "Where's Terra...?" She trailed off as she realised what must have happened. At the sound of her voice, Palom looked around at her; his eyes widened in shock and he came running toward her. He dropped to his knees and hugged her tightly. "Sis," he whispered in a strained voice, "Sis, your face..."

Porom suddenly went rigid with shock. It finally occurred to her that part of her field of vision was missing. She put a trembling hand to her face, searching the skin with her fingers. She could feel the deep scars left by the creature's talons, and worse, her right eye was forced shut by the scar. "My right eye..." she moaned in horror. "It won't open. But why? It should have healed...."

Palom hugged Porom even more tightly. In a pained voice, he said, "Don't worry, we'll figure out a way to fix it. Surely the Elder will know." Porom came out of her self-pity when she heard Edge yelling. The ninja was bellowing Rydia's name, but no reply came to his calls. Palom got up then, and ran over to Edge, who seemed likely to jump off the cliff after the two girls. Palom pulled the ninja back from the precipice. "Remember they have magic!" Palom yelled at him, trying desperately to get his attention through his panic. "They may have figured out something! It won't do any good to go jumping off after them! We have to climb down and look for them down there." Edge subsided then; his shoulders drooped and his head fell to his chest. Porom couldn't remember the last time Palom showed so much sense. He seemed much older just then. For once, she was really proud of him.

Porom struggled to her feet, feeling somewhat disoriented. She walked over to what was left of the Magicite shards. In trying to gather them up, she suddenly understood the meaning of 'depth perception.' At first, when she tried to pick them up, the ground would turn out to be farther away than she thought, and her hand would close on air, or her hand would somehow end up just beside the piece she was tying to pick up. Barely managing to fight back her tears, she gathered up all of the remaining pieces after a bit of work, tucking them safely in a pouch at her waist. She stood up, turning towards the two guys. "Well, I guess we now know the evil we face," she said sadly. "I've gathered what's left, so let's head down and start up the search."

Palom looked off the cliff toward the ground below. "You know, it won't do any good to try and find our way back in the dark. We should make camp and head down in the morning."

Edge looked up. "What? How can you say-"

Porom gestured for Edge to shut up. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but Palom's right. If we leave now, we may find ourselves in trouble again, and that won't be any help to them. Besides... If they are in trouble, well, we wouldn't get to them in time whether we left now or in the morning."

"Don't say that!" Edge snapped back, but his voice lacked true conviction. "But I guess you have a point." Edge bent down on one knee to be face-to-face with Porom. He put his hand on her shoulder in a comforting way. At least, as best as Edge could ever be comforting. "Besides, you look like you need some rest before we go anywhere. I'm sorry I wasn't... Quick enough."

Porom shook her head as her throat constricted. "It's not your fault. It ambushed us out of the blue. And if I had stayed with either group instead of being by myself in between you guys, I wouldn't have been attacked first." Edge looked ready to protest, but she cut him off. "I'm not blaming myself, though. I blame the thing that did this to me." Edge and Palom both nodded their approval.

They set up camp at the site across the bridge after that. After the sun had truly set and darkness settled in, Edge stood outside the firelight and looked off the side of the mountain. Porom was just about to call him back to join them when he suddenly pointed. "Look!" he said in an excited and relieved voice. "A camp fire! It must be them!" Sure enough, there was a tiny light that could barely be seen through a break in the trees surrounding the mountain.

"Hurray! Does that mean we can go to sleep now?" Palom asked sarcastically.

"You kids go to bed. I'll keep watch in case that thing comes back," Edge replied. The twins gratefully accepted and crawled in the tent.

As Porom was just drifting off to sleep, she mumbled to Palom, "I was really proud of you, how you handled all this. Thank you." In reply, she felt Palom's hand take hers and gently squeeze it. He might have said something then, but she had already drifted too far into dreams to hear it.

* * *

After they lost sight of Kefka as he flew off into the sunset, Terra and Rydia decided to make camp. "There's no point in trying to go anywhere right now," Rydia had said. "All of my reserves are gone. I need some rest." Terra nodded wearily in assent. As it turned out, a stream flowed along one edge of the clearing, and as both the girls' clothes and Terra's hair were basically caked in blood, they decided to wash their clothes and themselves. Without a tent, they found enough stones to make a circle in an area with soft grass. They found some twigs and larger branches and were able to make a decently large fire ("One of the real benefits of Black Magic," Rydia said, smirking.), and managed to take more sticks to make a place to hang their clothes. Then, one at a time with their backs turned to the other, they bathed and washed the blood and grime off their clothes. It briefly crossed Rydia's mind to wistfully wonder why they still felt so modest in this way, but she pushed the thought aside, blushing.

Bathed, stripped to underclothes that they had decided not to wash, for modesty's sake, and clothes hung up to dry in front of the fire, the two tried to find comfortable spots on the grass by the fire to sleep. Rydia laid down and closed her eyes for a few minutes, but couldn't sleep. She opened her eyes, turned onto her side and looked up at Terra's feet. Her eyes followed the curve of Terra's bare legs up to her underclothes. Her mouth went dry and she blushed, some kind of warmth glowing in her abdomen. She suddenly felt an urge that she decided not to fight and got up on her hands and knees. Her heart pounding and feeling very nervous, she crawled slowly forward to lay down behind Terra's back. She just couldn't help herself as she put her had gently on Terra's bare arm. Terra jumped slightly at Rydia's touch. Then she turned over to face the Caller.

Terra had a pained expression, and her eyes shone wetly in the firelight. Rydia's heart almost stopped as the pit of her stomach did backflips. Rydia wasn't sure what she was expecting when Terra spoke. "Rydia..." she began, her voice husky with grief, "Kefka came from my world. I'm worried about the others. What if he's hurt them, or... worse? It will be my fault. We didn't defeat him on our world completely. How can I face the others...? How can I face him? Knowing he escaped us once before...."

Rydia sighed with relief, almost laughing. "Don't say that. You didn't do anything wrong. You had no way of knowing what would happen. Blame him, not yourself." She moved her hand slowly to Terra's head, hesitating, and looking for any negative signal from her. Finding none, Rydia softly stroked Terra's hair. "If you hope to help us defeat him now, and restore your people back to life, you can't be distracted by feelings of guilt or regret. And... I know you're good. I know you wouldn't wish this. And I know you have the strength in you to face him. Again. Please, trust me." Rydia began to gently stroke Terra's cheek. She gently murmured, "Besides, I... I love you."

A few tears escaped Terra's eyes, running down her nose. Rydia wiped Terra's tears away with her fingers, trembling slightly. "And, please... From now on... Don't grieve alone." Terra looked startled at this. "I... I know you have trouble... telling people how you feel. Do you... Do you think you can try to tell me? I mean, more?"

Terra's eyes softened, and she seemed to be looking inward. "I guess I never thought of myself as feeling enough of anything to talk about it. I thought I could never understand humans and how they feel. I eventually realized that I was wrong, and that it was due to his influence, his abuse, but... It's still hard. I was so used to never talking, really, about anything, until it was desperate. But... I can try." She smiled. "Thank you." Terra put her hand to Rydia's face, holding her cheek. "I... love you, too."

Rydia smiled, feeling her eyes burn, and holding back a laugh, or maybe a sob. Lips trembling, Rydia asked, whispered, "Terra, can I sleep here? Like this? ...With you?" Terra's eyes widened, and she blushed, but she nodded. They snuggled closer together, still face to face, Rydia's arm over Terra's shoulders and Terra's arm over Rydia's waist. Rydia's chest felt as though it would burst, but that eventually faded as she breathed in Terra's scent. She eventually drifted off to sleep, smiling softly.


	7. Chapter 6

_**Author's Note: Argh. Writer's block. And the siren call of video games. Oh, you may want to read the last chapter over again if you read it when it first came out. I changed the ending. BTW, I am both excited and upset about the release of FFIV: The After. Of course, I don't have a Wii so it will be a long time before I can play it, and it's not going to affect my story (too far along now), but still... XD**_

_

* * *

_

_The sound of roaring flames filled Terra's ears, and the heat of the blaze was oppressive against her skin. Smoke filled her nostrils until she could hardly breathe. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end when she heard the all-to-familiar laughter behind her. "Yes, my sweet!" Kefka screeched. "Burn them all! Burn everything! Raze everything you've ever 'loved' to the ground!" Terra whirled around to face Kefka. She faced not the beast that came to Rydia's world, and not even the monster he became from over-exposure to magic on her world. She faced Kefka, the man, the one from her memories that she had pushed away. "It's what _I_ built you to do! _You_ were meant to be one of my weapons!" He suddenly disappeared, reappearing right in front of Terra, grabbing her arm painfully in one hand and grasping her face with the other, thumb along her jaw and fingers digging into her cheek. "And that's _exactly_ what you're _going_ to be," he growled in Terra's face. Somehow, Terra couldn't move. Kefka's face filled her vision. Her heart pounded with fear, and she felt sick. Her cheek burned where Kefka was grasping it, and she felt blood begin to trickle down to her chin. Her mind screamed at her to push him away, but she was powerless to fight back._

Suddenly, there was screaming at Terra's back. "Terra!" someone cried, her voice pleading. The pit of Terra's stomach went cold. Kefka wrenched Terra's face around to see Rydia, trapped by flames in a slowly constricting circle. "Terra," Rydia sobbed, "I trusted you!"

Terra's eyes widened in horror and shock. Her body felt numb with dread. Her throat went dry. "No!" she croaked. "This isn't who I am anymore!"

Terra tried to pull free of Kefka's grip, but he was too strong. He pulled Terra's body up against his, his arm a painful vice across Terra's arms and back. He had her totally immobilized. Kefka's grip tightened until Terra couldn't breathe. He lifted her up until her toes just barely brushed the ground. Tears of frustration and hopelessness escaped Terra's eyes as Kefka brought Terra's face back around to face his again. Blinking through her tears, she tried to look back at him with what she hoped was a defiant expression. Kefka laughed in her face. "Oh, I do_ love this new-found spirit of yours," he whispered, grinning menacingly. "All the more fun to break you. You _belonged_ to me before, and you _will_ belong to me again." His face took on an affected mask of pity. "And there's nothing you can do about it," he said, shaking his head and frowning. Then his eyes narrowed and he grinned again. "So don't bother trying... Though it's more fun for me if you do." He threw back his head and laughed. Rydia began to scream in pain, and the sounds of the fire, Kefka's laughter, and Rydia's screaming filled Terra's ears until....  
_  
Terra jerked awake, whimpering softly. She was covered in cold sweat, and tears were still wet on her cheeks. _Just a dream_, she thought, trying to slow her heart and calm down. _Just a dream. Not worth thinking about. _She rubbed her eyes, wiping her cheeks, and turned onto her back.

She found herself on the grass, looking up into a sky just tinged with the hues of sunrise. She looked over at Rydia. She had turned onto her back at some point during the night, limbs sprawled into a strange position. _It's a wonder she didn't hit me! _Terra thought to herself. She shivered in the predawn chill, and got up to go grab her clothes. She took Rydia's clothes and draped them over her to act as a blanket as she herself got dressed. She suddenly blushed, thinking about the previous day and that night. Something fluttered in the pit of her stomach, but it quickly turned painful as the sound of Rydia screaming pushed its way to the front of Terra's thoughts. She shook her head to clear her mind. _Just a dream_, she told herself firmly. _It doesn't mean anything._ Although she told herself this numerous times, another thought came unbidden:_ ...But then why does it bother me so much?_

Terra decided to go get some water from the stream and to wake Rydia up when she returned. She tried putting on a smile, trying to forget her nightmare. Even though she had told Rydia the night before that she would try to talk about things that bothered her more often, she didn't want to talk about this. _I don't want to talk about it because it was just a dream, and it doesn't mean anything. This is who I am now. I have my power under control. I would never hurt her. I have everything under control, so why bring it up? _Terra tried again to think about yesterday. She smiled, blushed slightly, and held on to that feeling as she headed back to camp.

When she got back, she sat down next to Rydia, gently putting her hand on Rydia's shoulder. "Rydia?" Terra asked softly. "We should probably get up and go find the others." She didn't let the fear she felt for what might have happened to them to creep into her voice.

Rydia mumbled indistinctly. She seemed to be about to roll over and go back to sleep, but she sat up instead. She stretched, yawning, then rubbed her eyes and looked up at the sky. She focused on Terra. Terra couldn't help but smile at how cute she was when she was sleepy. "Good morning," Terra said, smiling.

Rydia broke into a huge smile, her eyes just barely open. "Good morning!" she replied. "Oh no!" she groaned. She laid back down. She put her hands up and said, "Wait, wait! Don't tell me! You're a..." she lowered her voice, turning heavy with dread, "...a morning person, aren't you?" She slowly put her hands back down, showing her face again to Terra, trying (and failing) to suppress a smile.

Terra chuckled. "Not really. I just... Well, I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. But it is getting light out, so we may as well get going." Rydia nodded reluctantly, so the two of them decamped and tried to get their bearings. It was hard to tell where they had landed in relation to the beginning of the trail up the mountain, so they decided to just keep walking around the base until they reached it. Logic dictated that they would get around to it eventually. Rydia, ever the optimist, said, "Hey, what if they got up first, made it down the mountain, and then they started walking around the base in the same direction we are? We'd never find each other!" Rydia wasn't serious, though, and she laughed. Terra attempted a smile, but was only marginally successful. They were both worried no one would meet them at the trail head.

A few minutes out, Rydia slipped her hand into Terra's. Terra started, surprised. Rydia blushed and pulled her hand away when Terra looked up, but Terra took it back. Rydia smiled and blushed, and Terra felt an unaccustomed warmth in her chest as they walked hand in hand.

It took them most of the morning, but eventually they came around a stand of scrubby bushes to the beginning of the trail. They were immediately greeted my Porom, who saw them coming and called them over. "We were so worried!!" she called. Inexplicably, when Terra heard Porom's voice, she started, flushed, and quickly let go of Rydia's hand.

"I'm so glad to see you!" Rydia called back. As they got closer, though, Terra became aware that something was wrong. When she realized what she was looking at, she felt sick. Porom's face was mutilated, so that her right eye was forced shut from the scar tissue. Terra felt a lump form in her throat as the feeling of cold guilt clutched at her stomach.

When they got close enough, Terra put her hand out to touch Porom's shoulder. "Porom... I... I'm so sorry. It's... It's all my fault." She fought against a lump in her throat as she said it.

Terra was mildly astonished at Porom's maturity when she replied. "Terra, please don't say that. I blame that thing; why in the world would I blame you? Don't give me that sad look; I'm sure we'll figure something out." Terra couldn't help but think, _You don't understand. He's from my world. It's like we sent him here on purpose. It IS my fault. _Porom didn't give Terra time to brood, though. The little White Mage smiled and continued, "I think it's time we got back to the Elder anyway. He might be able to help us." She held up a finger. "Oh yeah! I did manage to save some of the Magicite, even though that creature got most of it...." Porom opened the pouch at her waist. Sunshine glittered off of the fragmented pieces.

Terra sighed. "Thank you. I should have thought more about keeping them safe than... Well... I lost control. I'm so sorry."

Rydia nudged her with her elbow. "It's okay. We'll talk about it with Elder when we get back." Terra nodded gratefully. _I hope they can forgive me. I know Rydia says it's not my fault. But I still don't know if the others will feel that way. _Terra tried to push the coldness she felt in the pit of her stomach away, but it stubbornly remained where it was, all the way back to Mysidia.

The reunited party found their way back to the airship, untouched from when they left it. It was a short trip back to town. They walked in a group back up to the Elder's house, and Terra could feel the townspeople's eyes on them the whole way. Everyone knew the twins pretty well, and it was easy to see that there was something wrong with Porom, even from a distance. Terra flushed under their gaze, and felt rather sick.

When they arrived, the Elder was smiling, but his welcome quickly turned to dismay at the sight of Porom. "What happened?" He asked with concern. Then he shook his head. "No, let us go to the Hall of Prayer to talk." He turned and walked through a door. Terra walked through the door, and her breath caught in her throat.

The room she stepped into looked to be cut entirely from marble and white crystal; it was constructed much like the room atop Mt. Ordeals. The difference was an alter lofted in the center of the room. Atop it was a gorgeous blue crystal. It seemed to hum faintly, reminding Terra of the sound of flowing water. The blue light it emanated played on the crystal in the walls and floor in a decidedly wave-like way; everything about the crystal felt like "water." It was the most beautiful thing Terra had ever seen.

When Terra gasped and stopped, everyone else stopped and turned to look at her. "What is it?" Rydia asked.

Terra shook her head. "It's... Beautiful. We never had anything like this on our world. What is it?"

"It is the Crystal of Water. It is one of the four Crystals of Light, which bring balance to our world. Interesting that your world did not have them; I am not sure how magic could stay in balance without them. Strange things began to happen when the Crystals were taken two years ago. You will have to tell me what you know of magic on your world at a later date, but for now let us go to the Hall of Prayer." Terra nodded and followed after, slowly. They went through a hidden door at the back of the room into the Hall of Prayer, which was altogether much less impressive, though the view through the window was very pretty.

There were cushions that were presumably for kneeling in prayer, which the group appropriated to sit together on the floor. "Now, tell me what happened."

Rydia obligingly launched into the story of what happened in the crystal room with the Esper, and about Kefka's appearance. Porom explained then what had happened to her face. After the others had finished with their narratives, the Elder turned to Terra. "It sounds like you recognized this creature."

Terra hung her head. Rydia put her hand on Terra's and gave it a little squeeze, but Terra pulled it away and folded her hands together in her lap. Without looking up, she sighed and started to explain to the floor what she knew. "His name is Kefka. He doesn't look like he did on my world, though, except for his face. And that terrible laugh." She couldn't help but shudder a bit, the sound of his laugh and roaring flames in the back of her head. "On my world... There was a war. The Empire wanted Magic so they could rule the world with its power. At one time, Kefka was merely a soldier, but he volunteered for experimentation to artificially allow him to use magic. Espers were the only beings able to use magic on my world until those experiments began. I am the daughter of a human and an Esper; that's why I can use magic. Those experiments drove him mad, but no one did anything about it. He manipulated and backstabbed his way to being the Emperor's right-hand man. We eventually found the source of magic on our world; three statues, in a triangle to keep balance. Kefka got his hands on those statues and found a way to use their power. He enslaved everything that had any kind of magic that he could get his hands on. The whole face of our planet changed when he destroyed the balance. In the wake of that destruction, Kefka ruled the world for a time. All he wanted was to make everyone miserable all the time. A number of us banded together and defeated him, but we also destroyed the source of magic for our world in the process. I guess that sacrifice on our part was pretty meaningless, since he's here now. Apparently, we didn't do our job right, somehow." She slumped down further and clenched her hands into fists.

"We're not going to let him re-enact what happened on your world," Rydia said softly. "And you thought that the Espers were dead and gone forever, but now it looks like there may be a way to bring them back. It's not a total loss." The others nodded or otherwise indicated their agreement.

The Elder turned to Porom. "It is my belief that your wound did not heal properly because this creature has a different kind of magic from our own."

Terra looked up. "Our world's magic... is different from yours?" The old man nodded. "Then, since I am also from that world, would I be able to heal her?"

The Elder nodded, but added, "It's possible, though the first failed attempt at healing may have caused irreparable harm."

"I'll try anyway." Terra placed her hands over Porom's scars and called up from within her the healing magic she had learned on her world. She felt something happen underneath her fingertips, but couldn't be sure what until she took them away.

As Terra removed her hands, Porom gasped and grinned. "It worked!" she exclaimed happily. "I can see through that eye again! Thank you!"

Terra could not smile. Her heart sank into her stomach. "No, not really. You... should look in a mirror." Porom gave her a puzzled look and looked to the others, who also had grim expressions.

"Then... There's still scarring?" Porom asked. Everyone nodded. "But what I needed back was function. I don't care if it looks perfect, just thank you for healing my eye so I can use it. I'm sure the scars are reduced from where they were anyway, aren't they?" Terra agreed and tried to put on a little smile.

"Now that that's settled," Edge broke in, "what's our next move? Where would that thing go? How are we going to beat it if our magics mix so badly? And how can we make sure he's gone for good this time?"

The Elder sighed. "As always, you are full of questions. I'm afraid I do not have many answers. Based on Terra's description of this beast, I would guess that he will go after the crystals for their power, if he knows about them. Though I fear what he may really be after is what he was after on your world; the source of all magic."

"We have a source?" Rydia asked, surprised. The Elder nodded. "I never knew that. What is it?"

"Nobody knows," Palom cut in. "But all this power has to come from somewhere, right Gramps?" Porom shot Palom a dirty look, but the Elder just smiled fondly.

"Indeed. For centuries, it was believed that the crystals themselves were the sources of magic. Now, we believe that the crystals merely focus the energy already present and form it into elemental flows to create balance. Where that energy actually comes from remains a mystery. At one time, we also thought that perhaps the magic came from the second moon. However, since magic remained even after it left... that seems to rule out that theory. At any rate, you all should get rest. I will pray for guidance during the night, and hopefully I will have an answer for you by morning." The Elder helped the group up, and ushered them all out of the Hall of Prayer, which was turning red with sunset. Palom and Porom stayed the night in their old rooms at Elder's house, while the girls and Edge stayed at the inn.

* * *

  
Terra was slightly startled to hear Rydia move once Edge had fallen to sleep. She crept over to Terra's bed, put her hand lightly on Terra's arm and whispered, "We need to talk." Terra nodded, and Rydia led her out of the inn. They went over to the town's pond and sat at its edge, and Rydia, having taken her shoes off, dipped her feet into the cool water. Tiny fishes came up to nibble at her toes. As she watched the fishes, she began, "Thanks for coming. I didn't want to wake Edge up." She looked over to Terra, and there was concern in her eyes. They darted back and forth, focusing on Terra's eyes by turns. Her voice trembled a little. "Terra, this may be too personal, but... I want to know what's really going on here. There's something more to this than you're telling me. I fought against Zeromus, and he was terrible, but I don't react at the mention of his name the way you do at Kefka's." Terra involuntarily flinched at the name, and cursed herself for making Rydia's case for her. "See? You're afraid of him in a way that I can't understand, and I want to know why."

Terra sighed. Her throat went dry, and voice sounded husky to her own ears. "You're right. There is more to it. I've never talked about it before, but here it goes." She looked up and off into the distance, seeing images of her past in the night sky. "When I was just a baby, the Empire invaded the Esper world. The Espers had sealed themselves off from the human world because human greed and lust for power would only cause war between them. Somehow, the Empire broke through that seal and invaded. Both of my parents were killed, and Emperor Geshtal found me. He realized my potential, seeing that I was the daughter of a human and an Esper. He brought me back to the Empire, and I was raised there. A lot of experimentation was done on me, right alongside Kefka. As he gained use of magic, I was assigned to him to teach me how to use my power... But it was more than that." Terra's heart began to thud painfully. She pushed aside the coldness in her chest and continued.

"Kefka... I don't know what he was before, but by the time I knew him, he was a monster, in a man's body. It wasn't enough for Kefka to hate. It's not simply that he tore down things and people out of self-loathing, or revenge, or even despair that he didn't know what to do with. No, for him, he really enjoyed destruction. He lived for it. He delighted in breaking beautiful things, only for the purpose of watching them die. But... I think even more than that, he loved to have perfect control over other people."

Terra was finding it increasingly difficult to speak past the lump in her throat, and her voice began to die to a whisper. "That's what he had over me. They gave him a 'Slave Crown' to use on me, to make sure that I would follow orders and wouldn't suddenly turn my powers against them. I guess what no one realized was that he..." Terra's stomach jumped into her throat at the terrible images that came up, but couldn't find the words. She couldn't bring herself to describe what he had done. She settled on ambiguity and continued, "...used it... for more than just that. He wouldn't just use the Slave Crown to order me in battle, he used it to control me... In other ways." She closed her eyes and paused, fighting feelings of fear and nausea as memories came unbidden. With nearly the intensity of tactile hallucinations, Terra could feel Kefka's hands on her. She hugged herself, rubbing her arms to try to dispel the feeling. "I'm not sure which was worse; when he had me wear that thing and I was aware of what he was doing, but couldn't react, or when he didn't make me wear it. Because then... He liked watching me struggle. And he liked punishing me for it." Her voice was so low as she said this that Terra wasn't sure that Rydia had heard her.

At this point, she took a shuddering breath and was able to continue in a stronger voice. "Then, one day, I was out on a mission without him and we found an Esper in stasis. It reacted with me, there was some kind of accident, and I passed out. When I woke up, someone had taken the Slave Crown away. I had amnesia. It bothered me at the time, but now I realize what a... blessing... that was. I wish I had never remembered most of the things that have come back to me now." The night scene of the sleeping town wavered in her vision as her eyes filled with tears. "The things I've done at his command; he made me kill so many... So many who didn't deserve it... The things he's... done to me that I was powerless to stop. When we defeated him, I thought I'd buried those memories for good. But... The sound of his voice... and seeing his face... and that horrible laugh... it brings it all back."

There was a moment of silence, as Terra ran out of words, and was left with painful emotions languishing in her gut. She started as she felt Rydia's hand touch hers. She looked into Rydia's eyes, and they had fierce determination in them. "He can't hurt you anymore, not that way," she said with passion. "We won't, no, _I_ won't let that happen." Her eyes softened. "I'm so sorry. I really had no idea how much you had been through. I guess... We still have a lot to learn about each other."

Terra's heart started pounding. "Does any of this... change your opinion of me?" she asked, and was surprised to hear how pleading her own voice sounded.

Rydia smiled. "Of course not." She leaned closer and whispered, "I still love you. I don't know that anything is going to change that now." Terra had no voice left, and was only able to mouth words of gratitude. Rydia hugged Terra close, and Terra just buried her head into Rydia's shoulder and cried. It was something she had never done before. Terra was surprised to find that, when her tears finally ran out, some of the tension deep within her that she had been living with had eased. "Done?" Rydia asked. Terra nodded. "Come on, let's go get some sleep. I'm sure things will look better tomorrow." Terra had never felt so tired in quite this way before, and she fell asleep the moment her body hit the bed.

* * *

Ninja are not exactly known for sleeping deeply. Edge was awake again the moment Rydia started to move. He couldn't catch what she said, but he followed the girls outside. It seemed strange for them to sneak off like that. He stayed out of their sight and followed quietly; he was sure they hadn't noticed him. _Something has been going on between them. I want to know what it is. _He couldn't put his finger on it, but something had changed between them overnight. _Though I'm probably just overreacting. Rydia saved Terra's life. She must be grateful. _

Edge watched and listened to their conversation. He watched Rydia's face as Terra talked; the half-Esper was looking off into the distance instead of at Rydia, and so she didn't see it. Edge saw it. The look on Rydia's face was unmistakable. A cold feeling started to grow in the back of Edge's chest. Edge wanted Rydia to look at him in that way. He couldn't focus on what was being said; he couldn't have told anyone what the conversation had been about if asked. The cold feeling in Edge's chest started to turn hot when Rydia put her hand on Terra's, and when Terra looked back at Rydia, Edge realized that Terra already knew how Rydia felt. Edge's face and neck felt hot as he saw them embrace. He turned away and went back to the inn. He went back to bed, unable to sleep but feigning it well. Inside, his mind reeled with jealousy and confusion. _I don't get it! How could they...? It's not normal... I mean, who's ever heard of that...? I must be imagining it. They couldn't possibly... No... _Edge spent the next hour or so thoroughly convincing himself that he had not seen what he just saw, that he had misinterpreted it. Just before he was finally able to get back to sleep, he thought, _I need to tell her how I feel... AND get an answer. Soon._

***

The next morning, everyone gathered in the Hall of Prayer. "We are about to receive some sort of answer," the Elder said as they entered. "I believe all that is missing is witnesses." He beckoned everyone forward to the tower's humongous window. Feeling very puzzled, and seeing her feeling reflected on the others' faces, Terra walked over, wondering what they were watching for. For a few minutes, nothing happened. The droning of the Elder and his assistants behind her as they prayed was a little bit unnerving. Then, Terra realized that the waves against the shore outside were acting strangely. First, they started to come in at odd angles, and soon they resolved themselves into a whirlpool. Terra looked over at Rydia, whose mouth was in the shape of "Oh." Apparently, she had some idea of what was to happen next.

Terra gasped as she saw a fish's tail come out of the water. It was unbelievably huge. Then, other points appeared from the water, and an outline of the rest of the thing made a dark area in the water. At first, it looked like a rib cage that went along with the tail. Terra gasped again as the rest of the vessel appeared, and she realized that it was not organic in nature at all. It was a ship of shining metal, in the shape of a great whale's body. It levitated into the air above the water, moved into shore, and landed neatly next to the Falcon, which it dwarfed in size.

Terra looked around at the others in confusion. "I guess from the looks on your faces that you recognize this?"

They all nodded. "Though this was unexpected," the Elder explained.

"Where does it expect us to go? The moon is gone. It's been gone! What kind of answer is this?" Rydia asked, bewilderment in her voice.

Palom snapped his fingers. "Of course! We have more than one moon!" he exclaimed.

"And where else would the Source be safe?" Porom finished.

"You can't mean..." Rydia began.

"Oh yes they can," the Elder cut in. "I believe it is a brilliant idea. I cannot believe that no one has thought of it before. Everyone has always assumed that our first moon was just an ordinary moon... but of course no one has ever actually gone to see. Indeed, where else would be safer for something as important as the Source of Magic? This is our answer. You must go and see what is REALLY on this moon of ours."


	8. Chapter 7

The ship had looked large from the vantage point of the Tower of Prayer, but in person it was absolutely mammoth in proportions. Terra wondered what sort of people could have created something so amazingly advanced and strange. Her breath was taken away again as she entered the ship; it was made of crystal and shining metal, fused somehow into something that almost seemed organic. There were lights in the ship that pulsed, almost as if there was a heart at the center of the ship's core. Terra felt slightly nervous as the thought occurred to her: I think this thing might be alive... Her unease grew as she saw the crystal at the center of the ship pulsing in time with the other lights, as if the crystal was the heart of this creature.

Lost in wonder, Terra started when Rydia spoke aloud, addressing everyone. "This is going to be dangerous. We don't really know exactly where Kefka is now, and we have no idea what we'll find on our moon, if anything. If anyone wants to stay behind, now's the time to say so, and no one will be upset." Rydia looked at each member of the little group in turn, making eye contact as one by one, everyone shook their heads that, no, they weren't leaving. Rydia sighed and smiled. "I didn't think so, but I thought I would ask anyway. Still... Do you guys think that we should get help? I mean, from the others?"

Edge replied almost immediately. "No. I think that we have a good group here. Besides, the others are busy with their own tasks. Edward's rebuilding still, Yang's got his hands full with the Monks, no one knows where Kain is, and Cecil and Rosa have their baby to deal with. No, I think we should do this on our own." Everyone nodded agreement.

Something was nagging at Terra, though. After a moment, it hit her. "Didn't the Elder mention that Kefka might go after the crystals? Even though we think he'll go after the source, we should at least warn the places where the other crystals are kept, just in case."

"Already done," Porom responded. "The elder and I talked about that last night. He sent a messenger along the Serpent Road to Rosa and Cecil, and those two have good connections from there. Though we are both worried that no one could be prepared to fight that thing off..." Palom nudged her. Terra couldn't help letting her mind run. We certainly didn't deal well with him, and I've fought the bastard before. I just hope they can run away fast enough.

Rydia cut in. "I'm sure they'll be okay. Our friends are smart, and experienced. We've all faced tough battles before. And, like you said, we think he's not going to go after the crystals."

"Still..." Terra still felt uneasy. "How in the world would he know about that moon? If that's where the source is, how will he get there? I just... I don't want to lead him right to it if he follows us, and I don't want to leave the people here exposed. I just... How are you all so sure that this is the right thing to do?"

The other four looked at each other quizzically. Then it looked like something occurred to Porom. "When Kefka was first sighted, he was flying across the sky, heading east, and it turned out that the Elder was right about where he was going. I'd guess that Kefka was led there by the magic itself. Maybe if we could sense the flows of magic, we would be able to see the source, but we can't see it in that way. Whenever the Elder is granted guidance through prayer, he's not wrong. And if Kefka was led to Mt. Ordeals because of the magic from his world gathering there, why wouldn't he be able to follow the magic flows to the source? I guess what I'm saying is that I'm sure that this is the right path because the Elder is sure that this is the right path. We all trust him, so we didn't think to question it, I guess." The other members of the party nodded in agreement with Porom's sentiments. Terra sighed. "I hope you're right." She gave a wan smile. "At any rate, does one of you know how to pilot this thing?" Rydia looked uncomfortably to one side. "Er, well, insofar as getting to the moon goes, it kind of pilots itself. At least, it did to the other moon before it left. I guess I'm just assuming it will this time. Then we can take control when we get there." Terra arched her eyebrows at her. "Yeah, I know, it's a little weird. And unsettling. And I hope it knows how to get to where we're going this time, too." Rydia laughed nervously. It was a long trip. Longer than Terra had expected, really. She spent some time looking out the windows of the ship, staring at the stars. Something seemed strangely familiar about the scene, though the memory seemed to be just beyond her reach. Something about the cold, dark, emptiness and the distant pinpricks of light... Eventually, she gave up on trying to remember and decided to get some sleep. She bid goodnight to Edge and Rydia, since the twins had already conked out some time ago. Terra tried lying on one of the strange beds that seemed more like a reclining chair than anything else for a while, but soon found that her nerves just wouldn't let her sleep. Eventually she decided to get back up and watch the approaching moon. Neither Edge nor Rydia had come to bed yet, but there was no noise coming from the front of the ship. As Terra came around the corner, her heart sank at what she saw.

Edge was holding Rydia close to his body, embracing her. They were kissing, and Rydia's eyes were closed tightly shut. As Terra watched, he pulled her closer and kissed her even more ardently.

Terra couldn't watch and quickly turned away. She practically ran back to the chair-like bed she had claimed to sleep in. She turned her back to the rest of the room, facing the wall, and buried her face in her hands. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she felt sick with despair. I always felt uneasy seeing them together, she thought. But I forgot about it, after... He must have told her how he felt, and why would she chose me over him? Terra felt all the confidence that she had been beginning to gain drain away. I'm broken. Alien to them. Not even wholly human. I brought evil with me here. Why chose a relationship that will cause questions, and might even be taboo? I can't really blame her. As the sadness continued to well up in her chest, she suddenly felt a surge of regret. She'd always wanted to be more human and had wanted to understand and share deep emotion. Now, with the despair she felt, she didn't want to feel anymore. She told herself it would have been better if she had never felt anything at all.

She tried to push the emotions away, somewhere deep down inside where it didn't hurt so much. It was like holding back the power of her Esper half that had always been within her, except it seemed like the dam that had been holding back the emotions couldn't be rebuilt, once broken. She lost herself in trying to stem back her grief when sleep overtook her.

* * *

"Rydia?" a deep, masculine voice reached the Caller's ears, surprisingly close. Rydia started, lost in staring out at the stars, reminded strangely of her rescue mission to save Terra. She turned at the sound to find Edge approaching her. She felt a tingle of apprehension as she noticed that he had taken his mask off to talk with her. She glanced around quickly, noting that everyone else had gone to bed. She and Edge were alone. Her apprehension grew.

Nevertheless, she smiled, trying to mask how she felt. "Yes? What is it?" she replied softly, a hint tentatively.

Edge stepped closer. He came close enough that he was well within Rydia's personal space, and she felt even more uneasy. She resisted the urge to step back. "I have something to tell you, and I've been meaning to say it for a long time. Ever since our battles together were over, actually." He paused, some redness starting to creep up his neck to his face. He pushed his bangs back from his forehead rather self-consciously, unable to meet Rydia's eyes. "I've tried to tell you before, but you never took me seriously. So, after what's been happening, and how dangerous to you this has all been, I thought... Well, I'm just going to have to show you what I mean."

Rydia gasped in surprise as Edge suddenly pulled her to him, wrapping one arm around her body and pinning her arms to her side in his strong grip. His other hand came up to the bottom of her scalp, his fingers twining in her hair and pulling her into a kiss. She was so shocked at his boldness that at first she didn't react, except to flinch at the movement and close her eyes. She felt a coldness spread through her abdomen. It didn't seem real, Edge kissing her like this. Even with her eyes closed, this felt nothing like kissing Terra. All Rydia could do was compare the two. There were no fireworks, no feeling of elation and euphoria, none of the warmth and softness she felt so completely when she was with Terra. Edge suddenly pulled her closer, his grip tightening around her, kissing her more deeply. Rydia panicked when she felt Edge's tongue try to probe into her mouth. She pulled back violently, stepping back and trying to wriggle free of his grip. When she had enough room to bring her arms up, she put her hands on his chest and pushed him back. At first, Edge didn't want to release her, and kept his arms lightly around her.

"Let me go," Rydia said after a long pause. Edge released her, and she looked away from him before she could see any emotion on his face. "Edge, I care about you. Honestly, I do. But not in that way. I'm sorry. I knew you cared about me, too, I guess I just didn't realize the depth of your feelings. I'm sorry if I mislead you, but I care about you like a brother."

"Really?" Edge replied, disappointment heavy in his voice. Strangely, he sounded resigned as he asked, "There's someone else, isn't there?" Rydia didn't bother looking up or saying anything; she just nodded. After a pause, he said softly, "I don't know if I can stop loving you."

Rydia felt tears trying to form as she closed her eyes. "Edge, please, don't... I want to be your friend. I'm sorry. I don't know what else to say." She paused, and Edge said nothing. Rydia couldn't look at him. "I can't do this," she mumbled after a moment, turning and walking away, towards the room with what passed for beds in this ship. At the other side of the room, she turned back to look at Edge, crouched down and staring at the ground as he tied his mask and adjusted it back to its customary position. That utterly forlorn and lonely image stayed with her as she tried to find sleep, and she worried for long hours before she found any peace.

* * *

Edge crouched down, knees to his chest, and stared at the floor without really seeing it as he tied his mask back into place. The staggering stupidity and the enormity of the mistake he had just made was really starting to hit home. I'm such a fool, he berated himself angrily. What did I think was going to happen? I knew she didn't feel the same way about me as I did for her; if she had, she would have done something about it. She's not exactly shy. So, why...? He replayed the scene from a moment ago in his mind over and over again. Of course, he had been wanting to take Rydia into his arms for so long he'd lost track. It felt so amazing to hold her like that, to... The ninja flushed under his mask. Aside from simply foolish, he felt truly ashamed at what he had done just then. I took something that wasn't mine to take, something that she didn't want to give me, he thought to himself in despair. How can she forgive me after that? How can we keep working together? All Edge could do was hope that he hadn't completely ruined their friendship. He had been so consumed with wanting to be more than friends with Rydia that he hadn't seen just how good their friendship was.

There was no way Edge was ever going to be able to sleep this night. He stayed up, watching the approaching moon, which sometimes turned blurry as his emotions threatened to overwhelm his more masculine tendencies. He spent hours trying to think of ways to apologize, ways to try to fix what he had bungled up so badly. He came up empty handed. When the ship came close enough to the moon to make out the details of its surface, he swallowed his wounded pride and pushed away his shame to awaken the twins and concentrate on the task at hand. Whatever Edge tried to do to fix this mess, it would have to be after they saved the world from evil. Again.

* * *

Terra started when she felt a gentle, cool hand on her shoulder. She was surprised that she had fallen asleep at all. She opened her eyes to see the wall, and turned over to see who had awakened her. Rydia smiled at her nervously. "We're here," she said simply. Seeing the Caller's face stabbed the bottom of Terra's stomach with ice. "I thought that you would want to help in trying to find what we're looking for." Terra nodded, the coldness in her stomach spreading, and she found herself unable to smile in return. She got up, finding that her right leg had gone to sleep during the night with the way she had been laying on it, and it had yet to wake up. She tried stretching out her stiff muscles from the particularly uncomfortable position she had been forced into and rubbed her thigh, trying to relieve the tingling pain there. Without really looking at Rydia, she went ahead to the helm of the ship, looking out through the observation deck and scanning the strange scenery below for anything that caught her attention. She had no idea what it was she was looking for. The dead landscape below was very strange to begin with, rock formations creating eerie shapes and shadows at they passed slowly by.

After maybe half an hour of silently floating through the eerie atmosphere, Edge spoke up. "Anyone else see that?" he asked, pointing a little to the left, out towards the edge of the horizon. Terra concentrated on where he was pointing. At first, she didn't see anything. Then, she saw something sparkle. Then, another spark. And another. She nodded. "Change course. Let's get closer," Edge commanded. Palom was driving at the moment, and he changed the ship's course. After a minute or two, the sparkles of light became more frequent and took on a pulsing rhythm. Soon it became apparent that in that direction, a streaming glow was emanating, and the sparkles they had seen were pulsing bursts within the glow.

Terra couldn't help but gasp and sigh as they got closer to the source of the glow. A sparkling, crystalline castle rose up out of the horizon, the sparkling glow reflected as glitters off of the various facets. The others, however, seemed rather nonplussed. After a moment, Rydia spoke up. "It's the same."

"The same as what?" Terra replied in surprise.

"The other moon. On the other moon, there was a castle just like this one," Rydia explained. "We thought it was built by the Lunarians. Of course, it didn't glow like this one, but... I wonder. Was this one built by the Lunarians, too, or did they just copy this?"

"We may never really know," Porom said sadly.

Edge crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. "Well, if this isn't what we're looking for, I don't know what would be. Sure looks like a source to me. Let's find a place to land."

The party flew in close to the castle. Inevitably, there wasn't anywhere to land nearby. Rydia sighed exasperatedly. "Why can't we just land right next to where we want to go for once?" she asked rhetorically. Terra couldn't help but smile. Bringing the ship down some distance off, the party nevertheless had a good view of the castle. It was hard to miss; the scale of the place was enormous. Even nestled in among many large rock formations that made it difficult to find anywhere to land, the party still had an incredible view of the crystalline structure. Disembarking the ship, Terra took in the beauty of this mystery. The castle seemed to have numerous house-sized crystals along the perimeter, with larger and larger crystals piling on top of one another until finally one mammoth crystal burst through the center to tower above all the rest. It was from this central spire that the glow emanated. Terra followed the glow higher and higher into the sky with her eyes. At a single point, the beam of the glow fractured and spread out like an umbrella over the surface of the moon. This was the reason no one had detected this source before; the magic was evenly dispersed into the air here, on the dark side of the moon, and sent to the planet below already so spread out that the naked eye could not see it. It looked like the magic "umbrella" had eight different colors to it: green, yellow, red, and blue sparkles flowed and disappeared off to Terra's left while four slightly different shades of gold did likewise on the right.

"Oh, I get it!" Rydia suddenly exclaimed. "The colors go with the elements and probably go to the crystals that match their color."

"So the crystals don't generate power, they just gather and focus one aspect of the magic," Porom finished.

"But this, this is its delicious source," a creepy, high-pitched voice said from the shadow cast by the ship, startling them all. Terra and the others turned to find Kefka behind them. The monster had Edge, who had been the last to descend from the ship, grappled. Kefka held long, black nails to the ninja's throat, obviously razor sharp as blood trickled from the points where the nails touched Edge's neck. The ninja's face above his mask was chalk white, but not with fear. His eyes held a fierce determination behind them; Terra could see his mind working frantically to find a way out of the hold.

"Let him go," Rydia said very softly, deadly malice in her voice. Terra's heart sank when she saw the concern mirrored there. It reinforced he assumption that Rydia had chosen Edge over the half-Esper.

"You dare to command me? You cannot hurt me. I would not speak to me that way, were I you," Kefka sang in reply. "Still, this one is of no consequence to me. I've only come for what's mine."

"What?" Rydia replied, not understanding.

Kefka pointed one long nail without moving his hand from the ninja's throat. He pointed at Terra. "She is mine. You will give her back to me."

"You monster!" Porom cried. Rydia had frozen with shock at Kefka's proclamation.

Kefka laughed, a disturbing, high-pitched, whooping laugh. His nails tightened around the ninja's neck, drawing more blood.

"Stop!" Terra cried out. She walked toward the monster she so hated, heart pounding. "I'll come with you, just don't hurt him, please." Her voice sounded so tiny in her own ears. I don't care anymore, whether or not I live...

"Terra, what are you doing?" Rydia asked, hurt in her voice. Terra ignored her. She couldn't look at the Caller. She just wanted them to be safe, and they were safer without her. Besides, Terra hardly cared what Kefka did with her anymore. Rydia loves Edge. Not me. It doesn't matter if I live through this or not.

Terra stepped closer to Kefka, her mouth going dry. She came within range of the monster's arms, and in a flash, Kefka threw Edge aside and lunged for Terra. A knife sped from Edge's hand and into Kefka's back, but the beast hardly noticed, grabbing Terra around the waist. As he took off from the ground, Terra felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. She let out a startled cry, her vision bursting into a starfield, and then everything went black.

* * *

"Terra! NO!" Rydia screamed, but it was too late. Before anyone even knew what had happened, Kefka was already flying toward the palace, cackling as he went. Edge had been the only one to react at all, and the bastard didn't even notice the knife in his back. How could they possibly hope to defeat an enemy like that? Rydia fell to her knees, sobbing. Through wracking breaths and clenched teeth, she managed a question. "Why did she do that?" she choked out bitterly.

Suddenly, Rydia felt a warm weight across her shoulders. It was Edge's arm. He let out a sad sigh in her ear. "Because I was stupid. She knew he would kill me and that there was nothing we could do about it."

"But now he's going to kill her!" Rydia shot back. "It'll take us hours to fight our way to that palace; flying, he'll be there in no time! There's no way we can reach her in time to help!" Rydia felt a ball of panic well up in her chest and burst into tears again.

Edge spoke up again. "Rydia, we can't panic. All we can do is what we can. We have to go now, not pause to grieve." Edge pulled Rydia to her feet. Rydia choked back her tears, realizing Edge was right. "Besides, he wants her, alive, for some reason. I don't think he'll kill her."

Rydia's stomach knotted and she felt a coldness spread down from her head as if someone had poured a bucket of cold water over her. Rydia thought she knew the reason Kefka wanted her alive. The party moved out as quickly as possible, Rydia praying that Terra could take care of herself until they arrived.


	9. Chapter 8

Terra awoke staring down at the ground as it moved below her. Strange rock formations sailed by, tens of feet below. She realized that she had probably only been out for a few moments. Hoping that continuing to feign unconsciousness would give her an advantage later on, Terra didn't move or give any outward sign that she had awoken. As it was, she didn't relish the idea of struggling with her captor only to be knocked unconscious again or fall to her doom. Admittedly, her Esper form had shown the ability to fly in the past, but Terra found that power particularly hard to control and did not trust that it would save her.

Terra listened to the flapping sound of Kefka's leathery wings for a while, a dark, cold feeling swelling in her stomach. Before long, Kefka started to descend, winging for the palace entrance. The source of magic for Rydia's world had definitely been built by someone, as the massive crystal structure focusing the magic had an entrance like a palace. Crystal bricks made a cobbled plaza several feet out from the massive portal.

Terra started casting a fire spell as Kefka carried her. The claws of Kekfa's feet clicked on the crystal bricks as he landed, and it was at that instant that Terra made her move. Focusing the magic into her hand, she brought her fist up to the monster's face before releasing the inferno. The fireball erupted right into Kefka's face as Terra struggled to break free of his grip. The monster let her go as he clutched at his face, and Terra ran to the castle entrance.

Terra was hoping there would be a door before she reached the source. She could barricade herself behind it, make it hold against Kefka, figure out a way to make a stand. Unfortunately, it seemed the builders of this castle had not been concerned about discovery or security. Upon entering through the doorless archway into the castle, Terra saw two cathedral-like hallways stretch off to either side of the main hall. A third and rather more constricted tunnel led forward. Terra ran along this corridor, hoping for a door but knowing that there would not be one judging by the glow ahead.

Terra came to the end of the hallway and turned around, planning to stand against Kefka and keep him from reaching the source. The monster was faster than she had anticipated, however, and she was immediately knocked flat on her back as she turned around. As Kefka knocked Terra to the ground, he used her to launch himself towards the source. The breath was knocked out of Terra with a whoosh. As soon as she was able to move, she turned over to see what Kefka was doing.

The source of magic for Rydia's world was a massive fountain of light. Kefka had immersed himself in that fountain. He let out a triumphant cry as a tendril of light detached itself from the fountain and snaked its way toward Terra. Terra struggled to stand up but was too slow; the tendril wrapped itself around Terra's waist, picking her up and slamming her against a wall to one side.

Suddenly, the tendril turned into a projection of Kefka himself, just as physically there as his real form. This form, however, was as he had appeared on Terra's world: a man, not a monster.

Kefka's white hands clutched Terra's shoulders. Terra felt cold panic claw at her stomach at Kefka's closeness. Her breathing quickened as he put his mouth to her right ear and whispered, "We are born alone. We live alone. We die alone. You, of all people, cannot deny it." Tears welled in Terra's eyes. Terra failed in controlling her emotions and failed at concealing them. She thought of Rydia, Edge at the Caller's side. She started gasping for breath, trying desperately to regain control. Terra felt lightheaded, suddenly unaware of Kefka's touch until he pushed his lips onto hers. Terra recoiled, revolted, but she had nowhere to go, no escape from his grip. Kefka kept his lips pressed onto Terra's, pushing the back of her head against the stone wall. Through this physical connection Terra felt immense energy entering her body. Bright, white light flooded the edges of her vision and contracted until she was blinded with it.

The energy multiplied her grief a hundred fold until she no longer had any coherent thought. All that existed was sorrow. Then, slowly building, another emotion existed underneath it all. A deep-seeded, burning rage.

Then, a voice spoke into Terra's mind, exactly the way it had years ago when Terra had been forced to wear the Slave Crown. It was Kefka's voice. _Yes, my pet_, he cooed, _let your anger burn. Turn it against humanity. What have they ever done but cause you grief? _

Unlike when she had worn the Slave Crown, however, the words held no power over her. They were simply words. Hurtful words, but not commands. Suddenly, Terra knew what she had to do.

Her anger boiled and raged inside of her, soaking up the power Kefka was feeding her. Kefka smiled, and the feeling of his mouth moving against hers made Terra cringe, but she did not pull away. Instead, she turned into her Esper form. This form was much better at manipulating magic and energy than her human form. She pulled the power through Kefka, hard. Feeling Terra change and then feeling power come through him faster than he had been feeding it to her, Kefka pulled away in shock.

Terra seized her opportunity. She launched herself from the wall, flying across the room and shooting a bolt of pure energy at Kefka as she went. Caught by surprise, the bolt hit Kefka squarely in the chest, knocking him out of the pillar of light to crash into the wall on the opposite side of the chamber. Terra stepped into the pillar of light herself as the astral form of Kefka disappeared like so much smoke. He looked at her with undisguised shock on his face.

Kefka opened his mouth to speak, but Terra cut him off. She heard her Esper form's voice, neither male nor female but full of magic, say, "Maybe the Slave Crown controlled me once. But you are not nearly as good at manipulating magical energy as you think you are or as I am. You summoned my hatred, thinking yourself safe from it?" Terra laughed derisively.

In a high pitched, cold voice Kefka replied, "You'll drown in that power trying to destroy me. If you try to kill me, you will die, too."

Terra thought this over, and agreed that Kefka was probably right. The power thundered through her veins. She was actually forcing most of it not to pass through her because it was too much. It was as if she were standing under a massive waterfall, making herself as small as possible so as to have the least amount of weight falling on her. She knew that if she used enough of this power to take down Kefka once and for all, that waterfall would get the better of her and sweep her away down the river.

Terra thought of Rydia. She thought of her friends on her home world, unreachable forever. Finally she responded, "I know, and I'm going to do it anyway. I will destroy you once and for all. For what you've done to me, and the threat you pose to others."

Kefka's face contorted into a mask of fear and rage. In that moment, Terra knew what she had to do. She drew on some of the power flowing through her to create several tendrils, like Kefka had, but Terra used them to search out all of the magicite shards. As the tendril touched them, the shards began to float up to form a circle around Terra just outside the pillar of light. Once all of the shards were arranged, Terra got one glimpse of Rydia's ashen face appearing at the end of the hallway before she gave herself completely over to the magic. Using herself as a conduit for the magicite to do what it would, Terra's sight and hearing turned white and she lost all control.

* * *

Rydia watched with amazement and growing horror as light streamed from the pillar to the magicite shards. The light seemed to be repairing them somehow. In a few seconds, the magicite was no longer shards, but whole gems. Then, each magicite started to emit its own light. Each stone's light began to take shape, one in the shape of a bird, another in the shape of a whale, still another the shape of a man on horseback, another the shape of a woman, on and on. Then, the entities of light from the magicite turned their attention to Kefka.

The one in the shape of a woman cried, "You will pay for your crimes and the way you used us!"

The other entities cried out in response, and as one the group surrounded Kefka in light. The shapes attacked the monster, and instead of flesh-and-blood wounds, parts of him began to break off into pieces and disappear into the pillar of light. "No!" Kefka shrieked, struggling to no avail against the creatures attacking him. "I will not die! As long as there is hate I will always... live... on..." Rydia shuddered as the last of Kefka dissipated into the light. Those last words sounded far too familiar for her comfort.

The magicite creatures then began to fade. One by one, the stones entered the pillar of light, turned to dust, and disappeared. All except for the one in the form of a bird. A phoenix, Rydia realized. "He is right," the phoenix said. "His hate will be reborn one day, but not in the same form. The entity named Kefka will never rise again. We, however, will be reborn in the same form, but with no memory of our past lives. Your land of summoned monsters is about to have a population boom." The phoenix looked back at Terra. "She would like to take care of us, if you can save her." Before Rydia could make a reply, the phoenix, too, disappeared and its magicite dissipated into the pillar of light.

Rydia ran to the pillar of light. "Terra!" Rydia cried in concern and alarm. "Can you hear me, Terra!" The Caller stood right next to the pillar, calling out to her love. "Terra, please, can you hear me? Let go of the magic! It will kill you!"

Terra's Esper form opened its eyes. There were no irises or pupils, just the same white light as the pillar itself. Rydia tried to reach into the pillar to take Terra's hand, but before she could even touch the pillar, Terra lifted her hand and blasted Rydia with the light, flinging the Caller across the room to smack against the stone wall and land in a heap. Shaking her head and gritting her teeth against the pain, Rydia stood back up. Terra was looking at her. After a pause, she said, "Why should I? Maybe I can be reborn, too. I have no reason to stay."

Terra's words pierced Rydia's heart. Tears sprang to her eyes. Not thinking about what the others might think, she blurted, "But I love you! Isn't that reason to stay?" Tears streamed down Rydia's face.

Terra's hair gained a green tinge and the barest hint of irises showed in her eyes as she said, "I thought you loved him." She pointed to Edge. "I saw you two, together." Her eyes turned white again and her hair back to its pink color on the word 'together.'

"No! I don't love him! He loves me, but I don't love him, I love you! Please, Terra, please don't go!" Terra's hair began to turn green again and her eyes returned to their normal state as Rydia once again ran towards the pillar of light. This time, Terra did not react as Rydia drew close. Rydia launched herself toward the pillar of light, tackling Terra and pushing her out of the pillar.

Rydia landed on top of Terra, embracing her, as the two crashed to the ground. Rydia looked at Terra, who had reverted to her human form. Terra was extremely sunburned, her skin a raw-looking red. As she lay there, tears were leaking from her eyes and tracing a path to her ears. "Really?" she asked softly.

"Really," Rydia replied. "Here, I'll show you." Rydia tenderly put her right hand to Terra's left cheek as she kissed Terra gently. Terra gasped in air through her nose, and Rydia's heart hammered in her chest as she suppressed a moan. Rydia pulled back from the kiss only with great effort. "Believe me now?" She asked, smiling. Terra nodded, her tears coming faster than before.

Rydia and Terra disentangled themselves from each other and managed to stand up. Edge, Palom, and Porom were staring at them, the twins in open-mouthed silence. After an awkward pause, Terra said, "Sorry..."

Rydia bristled. "I'm not sorry, and you shouldn't be either! If you three have a problem with us, you can find you own transportation back home!"

Porom raised a placating hand. "Rydia, calm down, please. We're not offended, just surprised."

Palom gave his sister a scathing look. "Surprised? Try flabbergasted!" He laughed. "But, yeah, not offended, just surprised. _Really_ surprised."

Suddenly, Terra stiffened. "I guess this is it. We're going home, right?"

Rydia smiled at Terra's use of the word 'home.' "Yeah, I guess so. What's up?"

Terra's face turned white and then beet red by turns. "Well, it's just, I thought, with enough magic, maybe it would be possible to..." Terra whispered into Rydia's ear.

Rydia's eyes widened in surprise. "Well, that would have never occurred to me, but..." The Caller turned to the others. "Can you guys head on back? Terra and I have something to talk out here. Please, trust me, we'll be coming along in a little while." Shrugging, the others in the group turned and left the building, heading back to the ship. Rydia turned back to Terra. "I don't know if this will work, but I'm willing to try. I'm willing to believe anything is possible with enough magic."

"Are you sure you're ready for the commitment?" Terra asked, her concerned eyes searching Rydia's. Rydia nodded. "Are you sure it's okay if I carry it?" Rydia nodded again.

"I don't want to carry a baby, but I would love to raise one with you, Terra," Rydia said as, hand in hand, the two stepped back into the pillar of light.


End file.
